Reviewed by Sam Unsted
Stars Eom Jeong-hwa, Mun Seong-geun, Gweon Oh-jung, Choi Jong-weon, Hyeon Yeong,
Kim Yong-geon, Kim Ik-tae, Park Hyo-jun, Jang Hyeon-seong | Written by Eun-jin Bang & Min-Hui Seo
UK certification 18 | UK RRP £14.99 | DVD Region 2 | Runtime 104 minutes | Directed by Eun-jin Bang
Coming over on a wave of minor cult fandom from its homeland of South Korea (where it was originally released in 2005), Princess Aurora is a half serial killer psychological exploration and half revenge thriller about a disarmingly pretty girl, Jeong Sun-Jeong (Eom Jeong-hwa), who we first meet viciously ripping a woman to pieces for bullying a little girl in the mall. She, it becomes clear, is on a killing spree, taking vengeance on a list of people in a brutally clinical manner. The investigating detectives assigned to her case, Oh (Sung-keun Moon) and Jung (Oh-jung Kwon), are polar opposites and it becomes clear as the story unfolds that Oh may have more knowledge over the identity of the killer than he lets on.
The story, which is verging on being very good, never quite grasps its true aims. The film meanders a little in places and seems to revel a little too earnestly in the honestly vicious killings that Jeong carries out. It’s a problem in the pacing really because the first two acts are quite nicely staged. There’s an economy to the storytelling that shines through and the layers of the story unwind and unfold with grace. The performances are strong too, most notably of Eom in the lead role, playing it straight and sweet and refusing to fall into melodramatics or any kind of psychotic twitching, similar at points to the portrayal of Dexter on the excellent Showtime series of the same name. Here we are presented with a serial killer that we have to decide to either hate or empathise with.
The problems come almost exclusively in the final act of the film. While there is a minor problem in the revelling the director takes in the brutal killings, at least these scenes remain stylish and contribute to the propelling the narrative forward. The third act falls away from the storytelling of the first two-thirds to provide a twist you will be hoping never actually comes (for it's blindingly obvious to even a casual viewer) and a host of denouements that, again, aren’t really in keeping with the probing psychology of the earlier scenes. The script itself does suffer the most of all the components. While the central character is well-drawn and interesting, everyone else around her is never fully pulled into focus and their characters end up being unable to compliment the whole story. There are also a couple of minor annoyances with the screenplay but all of it serves to keep the story going so can be forgiven. For the first two-thirds though this is a pretty excellent, morally questioning revenge thriller, a kind of sub-addition to the Park Chan-Wook Vengeance Trilogy. Therefore it should play well with fans of those outstanding films and also those who adore the questioning serial killer exploration of Dexter.
EXTRAS None