Reviewed by James Whittington
Stars Min-seo Che, Seon Yu, Hyon-Jin Sa | Written Sung-won Cho
UK certification 15 | UK RRP £14.99 | DVD Region 2 | Runtime 103 minutes | Directed by Shin-yeon Won
Asian cinema has never been more popular than now and this latest addition to the ever expanding DVD catalogue at Tartan Video will have baldies and other folically challenged viewers heading for the hills as The Wig is a hair-raising horror that might just give them a bit of a headache. The idea is a simple but original one. A girl named Su-hyeon is recovering from chemotherapy and is given a wig by her mute sister, Ji-hyeon. All well and good but as Su-hyeon’s vitality improves her temper degenerates and her behaviour gradually becomes more and more erratic. Soon we discover that the wig has been created from a dead woman’s hair and anyone who wears the piece seem to take on some sort of demonic possession. So cue lots of close-up eyeball shots, plenty of quick camera work and liberal dashes of body trauma.
As with most Asian movies this is set in a very real, suburban environment making the horror seem all that more real, even if the subject matter is incredibly far fetched. The Wig’s (or Gabal as it’s known in its native land) slow start will have many new comers to the genre scratching their heads wondering when the terror will start, but give it time, there’s some nice subtle moments to savour before the real horror starts. It bends towards more psychological shocks rather than in your face blood-letting but it does have some good and gory moments. Looking beneath the bizarre premise you’ll discover some rather subtle comments on how people adapt to family upheaval, dark secrets and personal angst. This helps to make it rather more than just another horror movie. The satisfying third act ties all the loose ends together in one neat package and is underlined by a haunting score from Jun-seong Kim. His gentle string arrangements help puncture the more vicious moments with some fragile beauty, a bit like poor Su-hyeon herself. Shin-yeon Won, here making his debut feature, directs with bold confidence and plenty of style, one only hopes Hollywood stays away from this little gem and not to try and style it into a more commercial piece for the Western market.
EXTRAS The lack of any extras on this DVD, bar the ability to change soundtrack from DD 5.1 to stereo is a disappointment. I’d have liked to have known a bit more about its origins and stuff but hey, you can’t have everything I guess. The transfer is nice and solid though it does lack some detail in the darker moments the movie has to offer.