Orora gongju (2005)

User Rating:

6.8/10   

Director:

Eun-jin Bang

Writers:

Eun-jin Bang (screenplay)
Min-hui Seo (screenplay)

Release Date:

27 October 2005 (South Korea)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Mystery

Plot:

A woman gets killed in a department store. No one imagines this could lead to serial murders, but two days after the first murder...

Plot Keywords:

Murder | Sticker | Death | Degradation | Childhood Friend

Cast

Jeong-hwa Eom	...	Jung Sun-jung
Seong-kun Mun	...	Detective Oh Sung-ho
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Jong-won Choi
Yeong Hyeon
Eun-pyo Jeong
Yong-geon Kim
Oh-jung Kwon
Oh-jeong Nam
Hyo-jun Park
Kwang-jung Park
Hye-jeong Yu

Also Known As:

Princess Aurora (International: English title) (South Korea) (DVD box title)

Runtime:

106 min

Country:

South Korea

Language:

Korean

Color:

Color

Certification:

South Korea:18 | Germany:16 | New Zealand:R18 | Singapore:M18 | Australia:R | UK:15

Filming Locations:

South Korea

Company:

East Film Company

A far-fetched tale of revenge

From the initial looks of the trailer and the poster Princess Aurora looked like a calculating, comic book-inspired revenge drama. While it's definitely about revenge, I think the screen writers have grown a bit lazy with this particular subject in recent times.

** The following comments contain some spoilers**

Story here deals with an on and off lunatic, Jung Soon-jung, played by Jong-hwa Eom. She was a mother once, now left carrying mental scars. Meanwhile she keeps herself busy by killing off random (or aren't they?) mean people. Her deeds challenge the authority as after consecutive killings the only thing they uncover is the sticker of a cartoon character next to the victims. Maybe the investigation is stalled due to her ex-husband, a cop trying to become a pastor, working on this case.

Before the film was able to get to the motives of the story I was irritated with a few things. The police work and psychology behind this case was made to look insignificant and felt undetailed and tension free for the most part. The death scenes were formidable, although a bit too easily conceived by the leading lady. The sex scene between the unmarried couple served no purpose, and instead should have focused on telling us something of their past. A particular scene in the spa where a staff member hears a noise, which people even next door couldn't, and after walking an endless corridor misses to see any traces of the killer, was quite dubious.

The film eagerly tries to clinch for a deeper impact as Soon-jung captures the lawyer who trialed the serial killer to a mental institution instead of a prison. Jong-hwa displays her acting chops as she dangles him from a crane above the cops and press, while speaking in her daughter's voice. Sung-keun Moon, playing her ex-husband cop, achieves zero to nothing while noting how neglectful he was when the wife asked him to look for their child, to what he suggested that she should file a police report.

The film gets down to the mechanics of the story, voyeuristically revealing the day the girl was abducted along with the people who Soon-jung thought were liable for her murder, with moderate conviction. The girl herself was left to brood the busy streets, but instead of going up to someone or getting noticed by anyone for hours, she decided to instead take a cab for which she didn't have enough fare, resulting in her getting kicked out and later picked up by the killer. But the further butchery of probability didn't stop there, as the vengeful mom got sent to the same cuckoo's nest where the killer was kept. Conveniently seated a table away from him to be exact.

** End of spoilers **

In conclusion, Princess Aurora was an unconvincing revenge film which might have gotten some slack 5-6 years ago, but now it gets crushed by the opposition. 2005, which early on seemed like a candidate for a year as remarkable as 2003 and 2004 in Korean Cinema, provided fewer truly remarkable features, but here's hoping for a better, stronger 2006.