London Korean Links

Covering things Korean in London and beyond since 2006

Festival film Review: Princess Aurora (오로라 공주) (18)

Dir: Bang Eun-jin, 2005
Mon 22 May 2006, 8:30pm, Prince Charles Cinema

A whydunnit rather than a whodunnit.

From the start, the perpetrator of these rather fun and sometimes gruesome murders is not in doubt, and the film sustains interest by drawing you into why the murders are committed. At first you think the motivation is a rather extreme vigilantism, but as the film progresses the motive becomes a bit clearer. The detailed explanation of why each of the victims had to meet their end is deliberately unraveled too fast so that you feel you’ve had a bit of a mental workout.

But in the end this film is amusing rather than shocking. The angelic murderess (hmm – where have you come across one of those before..? It all so much resembles Lady Vengeance) says early on in the film: “I’m learning to drive a crane”. It later becomes clear why. Not the greatest Korean film I have seen, and at best an average or even marginally below-average shock-horror film, but it’s nevertheless entertaining way to spend 106 minutes, and Uhm Jung-hwa holds the attention well.

It’s tailor made for Tartan Asia Extreme. score-2score-2score-2score-1score-0

Princess Aurora poster

One thought on “Festival film Review: Princess Aurora (오로라 공주) (18)

  1. Great!! Up there with the recent bests such as Oldboy and the Vengeance trilogy.

    One of the best they have shown from Asia in their recent Asia Extreme series!

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