Wishing Stairs		Return to Pan-Asia Review Archive
	Year:	2003	Schoolgirls can be scary
	Director:	Yoon Jae-Yeon
	Cast:	Song Ji-Hyo, Park Han-Byeol, Jo An, Park Ji-Yeon
	The Skinny:	Third chapter in the Whispering Corridors series serves up another plate of Asian Horror conventions, but when it comes to a quality story or genuine scares, it's slim pickings all around. Satisfactory in the most perfunctory sense of the term.
	Review by Calvin McMillin:	When Whispering Corridors hit South Korean theatres in 1998, a brand new Asian Horror franchise was born. In 1999, the film spawned a critically-praised follow-up entitled Memento Mori, before begetting this third installment in the series four years later, which itself was followed by the 2005 horror film, Voice. Part III sports the English title Wishing Stairs and tries to mix teen angst, psychological horror, and a good old fashioned ghost story to weave its particular tale of woe, but sadly, the end result is not nearly as haunting as one would hope.      Wishing Stairs marks the feature film directorial debut of Yoon Jae-Yeon and centers on the eerie events that befall a bevy of teenage schoolgirls at an all-girl art academy. The film's central relationship involves gal pals Yun Jin-Sung (Song Ji-Hyo of The Princess Hours) and Kim So-Hee (Park Han-Byeol). Both are ballet students and seem to be great friends at first, but a prestigious scholarship to a Russian ballet school causes jealousy to rear its ugly head. Although So-Hee seems to be a nice person, she is "cursed" as the consummate Prom Queen-type: beautiful, privileged, and genuinely talented. And all those positive qualities are just too much for Jin-Sung to bear. She's tired of being second best, and she's not gonna take it anymore.      Looming in the vicinity of this fractured friendship is Eum Hae-Ju (Jo An), an overweight geek who finds herself abused and ostracized from the rest of her classmates --that is, with the sole exception of So-Hee, who time and again demonstrates a genuine kindness and good humor towards this hefty social outcast. Of course, Hae-Ju soon comes to idolize So-Hee, a fact which will eventually have a considerable bearing on the outcome of the film's plot. It seems Hae-Ju is obsessed with the mythical "Fox Steps," which just so happen to be located on school grounds. According to legend, one must climb the twenty-eight steps, saying each number aloud. For those chosen few, a twenty-ninth step will manifest out of nowhere, and the fox spirit will grant that person his or her secret wish. Not surprisingly, Hae-Ju wishes to be thin, while Jin-Sung asks that she win the scholarship instead of So-Hee. Both their wishes are granted, but as with any tale of this sort, a lesson emerges-be careful what you wish for.      First-time director Yoon Jae-Yeon does a capable job in this freshman effort, excelling particularly in the normal, everyday scenes between the two main characters. The best parts of Wishing Stairs involve the interaction between the girls - the anxieties, the mutual affection, and the cruelty. Particularly interesting is the lesbian overtones suggested in So-Hee's "friendship" with Jin-Sung, but unfortunately, that sort of complexity remains muted throughout most of the film. If that angle were explored, whether in terms of simple unrequited love or some sort of shared, perhaps disastrous sexual experience, the film would have been far more potent in concocting its tale of supernatural revenge. As is, Jin-Sung's "turn" against her friend seems forced without that extra emotional oomph.      Also, the film would have been better served by trying to strike a better balance between the psychological and the supernatural. For half of the film, some of what happens onscreen can be left up to interpretation. Is Hae-Ju's extreme weight loss due to the "fox spirit" or the pills that spill out of her purse? Is she possessed by the spirit of a dead girl or simply mentally deranged? It's fine that the film makes a clear choice between these two options, but unfortunately, when Wishing Stairs ramps up into all-out Asian horror mode, it seems to be more interested in doling out tired clichés rather than building on the more palpable relationships within the narrative.      Performance-wise, Song Ji-Hyo makes for a decent protagonist, one who is somehow able to remain more or less sympathetic despite her blatant selfishness. The same cannot be said of Jo An, who was apparently cribbing from the Sammi Cheng school of acting a la Love on a Diet. Dressed in a rotund body suit, the actress apparently equates being overweight with being mentally handicapped and it shows in her performance. Not only is it a fairly insulting portrayal (even if it's meant to be sympathetic), but it also strains the believability of many of her early scenes.      Certainly, there are plenty of better horror movies out there, Asian or otherwise, but even with its faults, Wishing Stairs does explore some interesting territory, particularly in regard to the close-knit, often adversarial relationships among young women. Unfortunately, it's a wasted exercise, as Wishing Stairs neglects these strengths in favor of pandering to the horror genre in the worst way possible, forgoing genuine character-based chills in favor plenty of cheap, decidedly tame "scares". And bearing all that in mind, I'd have to say that at the end of the school day, Wishing Stairs gets a C and maybe even some detention. (Calvin McMillin, 2007)
	Availability:	DVD (USA) Region 1 NTSC Tartan Asia Extreme 16 x 9 Anamorphic Widescreen Korean Language Track Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS 5.1 Removable English and Spanish Subtitles "Making of" Featurette, Director's Sketchbook and Notes, Original Theatrical Promotional Materials, Photo Gallery
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