RED SHOES

DVD Review by david Blackwell

DETAILS: 103 minutes, audio commentary, original theatrical trailer, two featurettes

STUDIO: Tartan/ Sovik Venture Capital/ DCG Plus/ Generation Blue Films/ Cineclick Asia/ Cinewise Film

RELEASE DATE: 10-24-2006

THE RED SHOES is one of the best horror films I have seen on DVD this year. Forget Ringu or Dark Water. THE RED SHOES have both beat. I do fear it will be reamde for the USA within five years because it is a very scary film that reaches into the dark more than any J-Horror film ever could. South Korea has Japan beat at their own genre this time.

THE RED SHOES is about a pair of cursed red shoes that means death to anyone who picks them up.  Women will fight over them and even steal the shoes to wear them.   An eye doctor finds them on the subway one night.  The curse begins for her.  Will she be safe when she figures out the curse and where it started?    It will be intriguing how I will view this film on repeat viewings.   I love the flashbacks to Japanese occupied Korea during World War 2.   The twists and scares light THE RED SHOES up with intensity.  Gore hounds will also enjoy the film.

VIDEO: 2.35:1 (Anamorphic Widescreen)

Most of the transfer isn't bad, but too much grain/noise shows up at the climax of THE RED SHOES. This might be a DVD mastering issue or it happened during the film development process.

AUDIO: Korean 5.1 Dolby Digital, 5.1 DTS, 2.0 Dolby Surround

Subtitles: English, Spanish (feature film only)

SPECIAL FEATURES: An audio commentary with director Kim Yong-gyun and producer Shin Chan-gil and actress Kim Hye-Soo was recorded for the film.  They have high praise for every actor in the film and the lead actress offers her interpetations on a few scenes.  The director also gives a little on what he was trying to accomplish in THE RED SHOES in certain scenes and with the chracters.

Two featurettes are on the DVD. The first one is THE MAKING OF THE RED SHOES which features interviews with the director and three of the stars. They talk about the characters and teh film. The second featurette , the wrongly named A LOOK AT VISUAL EFFECTS, is the better one. That featurette is actually about the 2K scanning process for the film negative, the digital intermediate/ collor correction process due to imperfections in the film development process with silver, and the DVD mastering.

A lso on the DVD is the very effective original theatrical trailer and Tartan Asia extreme previews for the same films again (I wish they get some new previews to highlight on these DVDs).

FINAL ANALYSIS: THE RED SHOES is the best Asian horror movie I have seen on DVD. This South Korean effort blows away any J-Horror film. Go rent or buy this DVD.

this review is (c)10-31-2006 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission (except for excerpts and a link to the review). Look for additional content at http://enterlinemedia.livejournal.com and send all comments to lord_pragmagtic@hotmail.com