WHISPERING CORRIDORS

School…the place where the resentment of the juvenile lies

Even though school may be a beautiful place in memory for friendship and hopes, it may also be remembered as a place of teachers’ pets and the pressure for the college entrance exams. “Whispering corridors” presents horrors hidden in the school reality where the relationship between teachers and students is determined solely by grades students get and the financial positions of the students’ families. Do you know that female students who are abused by teachers harbor hatred and the wish to take revenge in their hearts? “Whispering corridors” discloses the reality of high schools full of abuse and violence and brings relief to all female high school students each of whom at least once in school days experienced terror toward teachers and the classmates.

School where nights differ so much from daytimes … diverse images of the limited space.

“Whispering corridors” is the film that honestly shows two extreme sides of the school, with the sunlit afternoons full of vigor and laughter, and gloomy and grotesque nights after the students go home. Every time it rains, a crying sound of a young girl is heard in a classroom. A suspicious figure moves every night in the dark corridor. The drawing room full of drawing tools, is covered with a shadow of an ugly face, and in the reading room, a string of blood appears on the creaking floor. “Whispering corridors” discloses the anxiety and fear hidden in our unconsciousness, and encircles us with the terror we do not want to admit.

SYNOPSIS

Jookran High School is an ordinary high school with its pressures and requirements for the students to conform and pursue the better education. However, underneath its seemingly normal struggle between discipline and the resistance of the adolescence lie the school’s dark and dirty secrets, and a terrifying fury, which is unleashed with the death of Mr. Park, a teacher of room 3-3, whose nickname was an “Old fox”.

The fear for the unrest in the school forces teaches to impose a “silent regime” on students who had seen the dead body of the Old fox hanging in the school’s overpass. As if it had been expected, painting the scene of death by a senior classmate Ji-oh arouses a lot of abuse from a room 3-3’s new teacher called Mad dog.

Amid the strange rumors that spread throughout the school, Jung-sook, who always used to be compared with the Mad dog’s favorite student So-young, commits suicide, and the Mad dog himself disappears with no traces left.

Meanwhile, a former senior student from room 3-3, Eun-young who a literature teacher appointed to his alma mater is molested by the words left over his telephone by the Old fox the night before he died. Eun-young finally suspects that the horrific events happened in the school, had something to do with the death of her best friend nine years ago…

Official Website: http://www.tartanfilmsusa.com/

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Introducing CINE2000

Founded in 1994 under the name Sungyeon Entertainment, the company produced its first work, “Deep scratch” (director Kim Sung-Hong) in 1995. As the first Korean psychological thriller, that movie earned two Grand Bell awards (in the competition) for the best new actress and the best new technical development. The same year, the company renamed itself into CINE 2000 and continued to produce critically acclaimed films which created a good reputation for the company as one of Korea’s leading movie production companies.

Filmography of Cine 2000

“Deep scratch” (director Kim Sung-Hong, 1995)
Grand Bell award for the best new actress, 1995
Grand Bell award for the best new technical development, 1995

“Their last love affair” (director Lee Myung-Se, 1996)
the 1st Pusan International Film Festival, selected for the main competition, 1996
Cairo International Film Festival, selected for the main competition, 1997
Toronto International Film Festival, selected for the main competition, 1997

“Kill the love” (director Lim Jong-Jae, 1996)
the 1st Pusan International Film Festival, selected for the main competition, 1996

“Trio” (director Park Chan-Wook, 1997)
the 2nd Pusan International Film Festival, Korean Panorama, 1997

“Whispering corridors” (director Park Ki-Hyung, 1998)
FantAsia international Film Festival, 1999
Vancouver International Film Festival
Amsterdam Queer Film Festival

ABOUT THE FILM

High schools in Korea like in other countries are full of oppressions and aggressions. However, what makes Korean high schools more depressing for students is the all-around pressure to enter colleges. That is even worse for good students. A very tight three-year curriculum, which reaches its climax in the last year of high school, consists of numerous and endless examinations and daily tuition programs till the midnight after regular classes. Yet the most painful aspect of high school system in Korea is probably violence in its various forms, which are the result of the strong demand for the high-class universities admissions. Students are discriminated based on family backgrounds and grades by teachers who antagonize students against one another to make them abide by the principle of the “survival of the fittest”. Physical and verbal abuse for the sake of “reform”, strong pressure and competition…The list goes on and on. This movie is a ghost story, yet by deploying this quite familiar genre, it aims to express the fear and aggressions harbored by any Korean high school student.

…The director presents a film that is as prim and precise as a school uniform -Hankyurae newspaper

…The film leaves no loose end. -Chosun newspaper

… cathartic cries reescaping from the crowd of schoolgirls - Joong-Ang newspaper

DIRECTOR Park Ki-Hyung

Born in 1967, Park studied Industrial Engineering at A-Ju University. He began his movie career when he was a college sophomore as an assistant director to the independent film “Cutting the sorrow with a knife at my chest” (director Hong Ki-Sun, 1991). He dropped out of school the following year in order to pursue his interests in filmmaking and joined a screenwriting program. Since then, he had been working both in TV and films as an assistant director for such films as “The dead end” (dir. Kim Sung-Soo, 1992) and “Nine-tailed Ghost fox” (dir. Park Hun-Soo, 1994). He has also written and directed numerous corporate propaganda films for Samsung, LG and Daewoo. He received an award for a screenplay he wrote for a contest sponsored by the Korea Motion Pictures Promotion Corp. (KMPPC) and the daily Sports Seoul newspaper. But it was for his first 35mm-short film “The great pretender” which was shown during the 2nd Seoul Festival of Short Films, that he received public acclaims and confirmed himself as a film director. “Whispering corridors” is his first feature debut film.

Park Ki-Hyung – Filmography

A Snake of June 2002
1991 Assistant Dir. “Cutting the sorrow with a knife at my chest” (dir. Hong Ki-Sung)
1992 Assistant Dir. “The dancer’s room” for a TV drama “The third theater”
Assistant Dir. “The dead end” (dir. Kim Sung-Soo)
1994 Assistant Dir. “Nine-tailed Ghost Fox” (dir. Park Hun-Soo)
1996 Scriptwriter and Director “The great pretender” (short film)
1998 Debuted with “Whispering Corridors” –Top boxoffice hit in early half of 1998
2000 Director “Secrets”

Awards:
* Best Director Los Angeles International Film festival, USA, 1997
* Best director Gold Crown Short Film Festival, Korea, 1997

DIRECTOR'S NOTE

I want to see a bleeding school !! For some students school may be horrifying.
When I heard the teachers talking filthily about my friend, when the friends of the same sex seem more attractive, when I have to smell blood for 15 hours a day, when I am verbally abused by a classmate without any reason, when I face the closed school gate that doesn’t wait even for five minutes, and when I am kicked by the teacher in front of my classmates…

Nowadays when the school is turning into a place like a prison, moreover, into a hell, I wanted to draw a gruesome picture of a bleeding school.

-Director Park Ki-Hyung

CAST

Lee Mi-Yeon as Eun-Yeong
Born in 1971 in Seoul, she studied drama and movies at Dongkuk University. She participated in the 1987 Miss Lotte Pageant competition, which brought her the role in the popular TV drama “The tree where love blossoms” in 1988. Since then she has appeared in numerous TV dramas and commercials. She also made a career in teenage dramas. It was in 1995, when she starred in “Three women on the road” where she played a role of a tormented housewife who eventually commits suicide that her maturity as an actress was recognized by the public.

The major films she starred in:
l “Happiness is not the order of merit” (dir. Kang Woo-suk, 1989)
l “Let’s look up into the sky sometimes” (dir. Kim Sung-hong, 1990)
l “Three women on the road (dir. Oh Byeong-cheol, 1995)
l “Number three” (dir. Song Neung-han, 1997)
l “Motel Cactus” (dir. Park Ki_yong, 1997)
l “Whispering corridors” (dir. Park KI-hyon, 1998)

Kim Kyu-Ree as Ji-Ho
Born in 1979 in Seoul, Korea, she began her career starring in TV commercials. As a high school student, she managed to combine starring in commercials, TV dramas and films and as an MC of pop shows. She made her debut as a movie actress in 1996 in the movie “Henequen” (dir. Kim Ho-sun). “Whispering corridors” is her second feature film where she plays her first leading role.

Choi Se-Yeon as Jae-Yi
Born in 1977 in Seoul, she is currently studying drama and films at Suh-il Junior College. She began her career starring in TV commercials which eventually provides her with roles in various TV dramas. “Whispering corridors” is her first feature film.

The teachers
Eun-yeong Lee Mi-Yeon
Oh Kwang-ku (Mad dog) Park Yong-soo
Park Ki-sook Lee Yong-nyo
The art teacher Kim Yoo-seok

The students
Ji-oh Kim Kyu-ree
Jae-yi Choi Se-yeon
So-young Park Jin-hee
Jeong-sook Yoon Ji-he

CREDITS
Executive producer Lee Choon-yeon
Assistant producer Oh Ki-min
Screenplay In Jeong-ok and Park Ki-hyung
Director Park Ki-hyung
Cinematographer Suh Jeong-min
Illumination Shin Jeon-ah
Sound recording Lee Tae-kyu (live)
Art director Kang Chang-kil
Special effects Chung Do-ahn
Editing Ham Sung-won
Music director Moon Sung-heon and Park Jung-ho
Sound engineer Kang Dae-sung (leading sound)
Costumes Lee Jin-hee
Make-up Park Sun-ji
Photographer Chun Seok-heon
Assistant director Choi Ik-kan
Props Chung Chan-keong, Ryoo Seong-wan
Production manager Lee Choon-Yeon
Production assistants Kwon Jong-kwan, Park Ji-seong
Publicity Moon Ja-rim

Music - Moon Sung-heon
Music in “Whispering corridors” plays an important role in maximizing the creepy feelings. It maximizes the tensions of the most horrifying moments in the movie. Moon says that she will make the best use of the natural sounds generated by computer and electronic music instruments, so that to make them necessary constituents of the film. Ms. Moon who used to be in the vanguard of the song movement in 1980’s completed her music studies course in Russia and France, and after her return to Korea, she made her first attempt as a film music director in “Whispering corridors” which is watched as a promising work.

PRODUCTION NOTES

The film that poured out a drum of blood …
In ”Whispering corridors” a great amount of blood was used, maybe more than in other action or horror films. In the last scene, in particular, the huge amount of blood that flooded the whole room was used. A special make-up team prepared twenty 15-liter drums of blood for the whole film but when we started filming, we found out that twenty drums of blood were not enough to cover desks in classrooms, blackboards, windows and the floor. As step-assistants suggested, we mixed water with the blood. Thus, the amount of blood we prepared for the movie exceeded 50 drums, and the blood alone cost us more than US$ 1,000. The blood used in the film was made by boiling for over 24 hours the glucose and food colors.

The movie that uses dead mask with expression
In the most horrifying scene of the film where a Mad dog is murdered, a dead mask was used. The dead mask had been made for over one month, because the director said that the image of a cut-off ear of Oh Kwang-gu would look unnatural if we just cover it away. The living expression of the dead mask was what we needed- the one with a cut-off ear horribly opened eyes and mouth. Usually, dead masks are made by covering a face with gypsum and taking the copy of it, but you can’t make a face expression using gypsum with eyes and mouth open. The special make-up team made the dead mask from clay imitating the real face of Park Yong-Soo who plays the role of Kwang-Gu, and after covering it with gypsum, put the skin on it. The skin was colored with a make-up, bloody acryl strings were drawn near the eyes, and the special bond gave gloss to the mask.

54 lists of strong glass used in the last scene
“Whispering corridors” did not use Computer Graphics or special effects, which were common in other horror movies; rather, it makes the maximum use of the limited space to elevate the degree of horror. However, in the last scene where Lee Mi-Yeon is running away from the ghost, it was decided to shift the windows into strong glass and to blast it, but that would have caused injuries to the actors and the production team. The actors could have suffered from fatal injuries in case the pieces of glass get spattered into their faces, and besides there was a big responsibility in filming that expensive scene without wasting films. In order to avoid making mistakes when filming that scene, we installed three cameras - the front, back and side camera – and inserted a strong glass that is ten times more expensive than that of normal glass into the corridor windows. To bring under control the startled at the blast sound people living near the school, the production step-assistants were stationed at outside of the building, and only three cameras and Lee Mi-Yeon were left in that long corridor. With the sign of the director, the explosive installed outside the corridor blasted out, the window glass exploded, and Lee Mi-Yeon tumbled with a scream. Without stopping, the window glass kept on exploding, and Lee Mi-Yeon blocking away the pieces of the broken glass escaped to the room 3-3.

On that day the production costs of that scene were five times higher than that of other scenes. All in all, it cost us more than $3,000 including the numerous lists of strong glass. We broke almost the total of fifty-four windows because one strong glass is equivalent to 6 lists of glass.

Tartan Asia Extreme’s Whispering Corridors In Stores Nationwide Feb. 22nd

“A fascinating psychological ghost-mystery-whodunnit-thriller-suspense story.” – Mandiapple.com

LOS ANGELES – Jan. 1, 2005 – The long-awaited DVD premiere of the film that started the Asian horror boom, Whispering Corridors (released in Korea as Yeogo Goedam) on Tartan’s newly launched Asia Extreme label.

Set in a seemingly normal private all-girls school, life is what you’d expect for young teenagers, until a past alumni returns as a teacher and strikes up a new friendship with two very different students. When another teacher is found, apparently having committed suicide, a horrific course of events ensues, which inextricably links both the past and the present. As the body count rises, memories of the deaths unleash the echoes of ghosts down the corridors.

Korean, with English and Spanish subtitles, Whispering Corridors is presented in anamorphic widescreen, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and DTS. Special DVD features include a photo gallery and Asia Extreme new release trailers.

All releases on the Asia Extreme label are supported by broad-based and multi-faceted consumer advertising campaigns; a comprehensive online viral marketing campaign; and a public relations push to English-, Spanish- and Asian-language media.

Tartan Video’s Asia Extreme is a premiere collection of stylish international cinema from the proven Asian horror genre which shocks, scares and astonishes in equal measure. In the U.K., Tartan has sold over $50 million of Asian product, which would equate to $500 million in the U.S., making it Britain’s leading independent film genre.

U.K.-based Tartan Films, formed in 1982, is one of Britain’s most respected distributors of films, both theatrically and on home video. Tartan U.S.A., headquartered in Los Angeles, Calif., was launched in October 2004 with an eclectic slate of films from established auteurs and up-and-coming filmmakers. Look for a cutting-edge slate of innovative, acclaimed and award-winning feature films to be released theatrically by Tartan Films and to the home entertainment market by Tartan Video. From American independents’ fare to major film festival winners to the best of international cinema, they are films from around the world that entertain, provoke and inspire … and are sometimes controversial. Tartan Video is distributed exclusively by TLA Releasing.