Forgotten (2017)
Stars: Ha-Neul Kang, Mu-Yeol Kim, Seong-kun Mun
Runtime: 108 minutes
Synopsis: Weird things start to happen when Jin-Seok moves into a new house with his parents and brother.
- Performances: 4/10
Why? I always find it hard to judge performances in films coming from countries and cultures of which I'm not really familiar with. Having previously seen other Korean movies, I can say with confidence that the way they interact with each other there differs from the way people interact with each other in say the United States or Europe. Having said that, I just couldn't relate to the actors in this particular film, which is a thing I haven't experienced much with movies coming from South Korea. For me, they felt the whole times like written characters instead of genuine people, unfortunately making it hard to take them seriously.
- Screenplay: 3/10
Why? Some of the best psychological thrillers I have ever seen are Korean. Movies like "A Tale of Two Sisters", "Oldboy", or "The Handmaiden" still haunt my dreams to this day. "Forgotten" on the other hand, does not come close to having the impact these movies had on me. Not only does it fail in presenting interesting characters and repetitive exposition and cheese, but it also fails in delivering an engaging story. The plot was full of questionable decisions obviously included to serve the weak narrative, moments of cringe-worthy convenience that ruined entire scenes, and more than one horror scenes that were there entirely as a service for fans of the genre without adding anything to the story. But what disappointed me most were the twists that either made absolutely no sense whatsoever or were extremely predictable. I also found the entire last act to be unnecessary and out of place.
- Costumes/Makeup: 7/10
Why? An aspect I actually enjoyed. The makeup played an important part in the story and was handled pretty well. However, I wasn't entirely sold on the costumes as I felt that they didn't reflect well the times in which the story takes place.
- Editing: 4/10
Why? The way the movie was cut together didn't work at all for me. Add to that an entire final act that could've been cut out and replaced with one scene instead and two or three completely unnecessary and cheap jump scares, and you unfortunately get a film that's all over the place.
- Cinematography: 6/10
Why? The movie looked good, despite a few hiccups with the lightning and some zoom ins and zoom outs that felt a bit cheesy.
- Score/Soundtrack: 7/10
Why? I actually found the score to be a pretty effective one. It enhanced the tension when it needed to, and was pretty pleasing to listen to in tension-free scenes. It's too bad the rest of the film didn't meet its standards.
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