Directed by: Lee Woo-cheol (이우철) Starring: Sung Hyun-ah (성현아), Park Da-an (박다안), Jeong Ho-bin (정호빈) Release Date: August 18th, 2005
Since many of the films from east Asia in the early 2000’s being picked up for distribution in the west were either martial arts or horror films, there seemed to be an overabundance of contenders each year attempting to ride this Asian horror crave-wave both domestically (within Korea) and abroad. Cello is one such horror film that came out during this time that saw a large number of horror productions released during the summer months that may have caused it to have been swept away in the pack a bit. But Cello holds up as one of the more unique efforts with its unconventional narrative that turns the subconscious into a house of horrors, where the dissonance of personal rivalries and familial insecurities resonate as the dark harmonics of a possessed cello.
After cellist instructor Mi-ju (Sung Hyun-ah) is confronted by a disgruntled former student, she becomes the target of malicious pranks and begins to receive unnerving text messages. This coincides with Mi-ju’s family life at home also becoming unhinged beginning with one of her daughter’s worsening mental conditions and a refusal to speak. And when her husband Joon-ki (Jeong Ho-bin) hires a new housekeeper with a tragic family history of her own, a begrudging dark cloud of death begins to fester within the walls of the house.
When the appearance of an old cello recording by Kim Tae-yeon (Park Da-an) surfaces in the home that causes unusual distresses for Mi-ju, her husband begins to look into cellist. He discovers a strange and unsettled rivalry between his wife and the now deceased cellist that begins tearing the family apart.
There’s a an unsettling style of acting in Cello that wasn’t easy to pick up on my original viewing. After having studied the language watched countless Korean films since then, I sense the actors to have a kind of disconnected way of delivering their lines at times. While one could argue this to be a result of poor directing or casting, I prefer to interpret it more along the lines of being an intentional choice similar to something like we saw in Yorgos Lanthimos’s The Lobster (2015). Cello is a film that establishes a mysterious reality for itself that works due to the nature of the story– taking place within the mind of someone presumed to be in either a coma or deep sleep, the result feels very dreamlike.
And since pleasant dreams can turn into a nightmares without warning with scenes able to instantly morph from place to place, the setting in Cello can shift from bright and spacious music auditoriums to the prison like atmospheres of a luxurious family home on a dime. The home often feels to represent the lead character Mi-ju’s subconscious, a place she seems trapped inside of along with all her fears and insecurities. There are traditional haunted house and ghost aspects here too, but a lot of the scares and special effects look dated by today’s standards.
I found Cello to also share a lot in common with the recent drama mystery movie Diva (2020), especially in regards to the destructive rivalries and heavy theme of guilt present in the two films. The musical rivalry between the cellists in Cello and the athletic rivalry between the divers in Diva both tear the best friends apart in dramatic fashion. Both stories also involve a fatal car crash where one of the duo’s deaths act as the impetus for a psychological breakdown, and I rather enjoyed the mystery horror approach in both overall.
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