Synopsis
The sorcerous nature of images are mobilized and the characters in the movie are shocked. In Whispering Corrdors, sculptures, paintings and photos are among the major materials that turn the weird story into a spectacle. By choosing the Fine Arts Room as one of the major settings and by endowing the skill of creating images upon a few important characters, the movie succeeded in increasing the feeling of horror. The dreadful drawings by Ji-o and the paintings and sculptures exchanged between Chin-ju, the sorcerer's daughter, and Un-yong in the deserted building. These artworks are precious means of self-expression for the students who are under suffocating education, while functioning as records of the times. Meanwhile, it's the photography that confirms the identity of Chin-ju who has been lingering at the school for nine years. The graduates' album is this movie's lost arc and when the arc is found, there comes the climax. Apart from images, time is the most significant prop of horror movies. As Paul Wilman says there are two kinds of time in Whispering Corrdors --the chronological time and the circulatory time. The time brings up historical problems. Chirs Berry reads in this movie the haunting memories of Korea's suffering under Japan's colonial oppression. Underlying the ghosts' time which is restored every yearare the school uniform confining the students' bodies, the suppressive education symbolized by a teacher called "mad dog" and the choking school buildings. Together with the scary revenge of the time that brings out historical memories and the maddening power of images, what characterizes Whispering Corrdors is its criticism of the society fanning competition and of the distrust and sense of alienation resulting from competition. (So-young Kim)