Synopsis
, the third of the series of independent horror stories set in girls’ high school, has been selected as the closing film for PiFan 2003. The feature debut for the director Yoon Jae-yeon, with the cast of mostly first-time actors, focuses on the psychology of girls going through the rough period of adolescence when they are subjected to the turbulences of passions. Using the school as the setting, a place where the mechanism of oppression and violence is at work, the detailed portrayal of the intricate psychology of self-love, competitiveness, and bizarre friendship found among school girls is remarkable and dramatic. The story is about teenage girls who attend an all girls’ high school for the arts, living out the most endearing period of their lives, studying arts that seek beauty in all things. But paradoxical twists turn the story into a series of nightmarish incidents, entangled by jealousy, competitiveness, and intense desire and emotions. If you walk up all the twenty-eight steps of the stairway in front of the school dormitory while wishing for something earnestly, a new step will be added and the wish will come true. Clandestinely, the girls walk up and down the stairs, revealing their desires as they chant incantations like witches. However, should the wish be granted, it will also come with a horrible curse. When a wish for winning a competition is granted, a classmate dies, and then returns to school as a ghost. The girl who yearned for the perfect sculpture ends up becoming a sculpture herself. The girl with an overwhelming desire for the object of her desire ends up with multiple personality, and when later she comes to identify herself with the ghost, she becomes a living ghost. Images that spice up the horror of the film are superimposed onto an eerily calm screen, sending a chill down the spine. With outstanding portrayals of the interior of the characters, director Yoon Jae-yeon has brought exquisiteness to the ensemble of four high school girls. has discovered four new stars of the screen, including Park Han-byul, the Festival Lady of PiFan 2003, Jo Ahn, Song Ji-hyo, and Park Ji-yeon.(Creta Doehae Kim)