I stumbled upon the 2007 South Korean horror movie "Muoi" here in 2021. Needless to say that I needed no persuasion to sit down and watch it, despite the fact of never having heard about it prior to watching it.

The movie's cover was definitely an eye-catcher, and as I saw that movie's cover, I have to say that my interest was instantly drawn to the movie.

However, writers Zizak and Tae-kyeong Kim just didn't manage to come up with a storyline that proved entertaining or enjoyable. In fact, the storyline was so insanely mundane that it was a difficult task to keep having an interest in what transpired on the screen. And it was a losing battle, because nothing interesting happened on the screen, and the character gallery in the movie was about as mundane and bland as could be.

There was nothing scary in "Muoi", unless you are an Asian viewer perhaps. But for a seasoned horror veteran such as myself, then "Muoi" was a swing and a miss. A downright boring movie actually.

The acting in the movie was bland and I bet I will have forgotten about the movie completely come next week. But of course, when having an inferior script and storyline to work with, as well as having characters with the personalities of slugs, then the actresses and actors in the movie had very little to work with.

"Muoi" was a movie that came and went without as much as a nudge or anything. This was such a bland movie experience. And I can't recommend that you waste your time, money or effort on this movie from director Tae-kyeong Kim.

My rating of "Muoi" lands on a generous three out of ten stars. This was, in fact, one of the most boring and uneventful South Korean horror movies I have stumbled upon.

Yun-hui travels from Korea to Vietnam to learn about the legend of a painting of a woman named Muoi. Seo-yeon meets her there, and guides her regarding the legend. The two women have some sort of past but have not seen one another for three years.

Seo-yeon explains the Muoi story in brief while walking in the places where it happened. Muoi was born of low parentage, but managed to attract an artist who took time to paint her portrait. Unfortunately, he was engaged to a rich, vindictive woman, and had to return to her. Muoi's rival came to her while he was gone, and had Muoi's legs broken; she also threw a pint or so of acid on Muoi's face. When the artist tried to see Muoi, she would not see him because of her damaged face, and subsequently hung herself over the loss. The story goes that she became a grudge ghost because of the unresolved anger and desire for vengeance.

Yun-hui takes this in. With more details and embellishments, she hopes to write a bestselling book. Seo-yeon hands her a batch of old papers, photographs, and notes that she had collected for Yun-hui. Yun-hui starts through the stack; Seo-yeon starts a large painting.

Through some machinations, they get to see a copy of a painting of Muoi. Just after this, Yun-hui tells Seo-yeon that she had already seen a painting of Muoi. When she tries to show the photo to Seo-yeon, the camera had only a blank. Seo-yeon tells Yun-hui that there was no painting there; it had to have been that Muoi's ghost. Yun-hui dreams about Seo-yeon confronting her about how she had libeled Seo-yeon in her last book.

Oi, this films seems to be much more about Yun-hui's guilt about writing ill of Seo-yeon in her previous book than anything else. The two women have a confrontation about the book, and Yun-hui decides to return to Korea. Before she goes, Seo-yeon tells her of how a woman had commissioned three men to rape her while her boyfriend filmed it. This was why Seo-yeon left Korea, never to return. Yun-hui did not know about this.

The two make nice. Seo-yeon has some sort of problem overnight, and Yun-hui goes to a temple to find out more about the case. The temple seems to have a lot of Muoi artifacts.

This is the point where the film really gets creepy. It proceeds quickly to a grim and thorough conclusion.

-------Scores--------

Cinematography: 10/10 Fine.

Sound: 10/10 No problems.

Acting: 7/10 A little uneven but mostly good.

Screenplay: 9/10 Comes to a reasonable conclusion given the build up.

Special Effects: 7/10 Reasonable.

I had to review this because there are only two other reviews and both didn't really like it.

I really enjoyed muoi, The story was something a bit different and really interesting, the setting was beautiful. It had the usual twists and turns or Asian horror and great moments of suspense. For the first time in years i actually jumped out of my skin at one point, and not in the cliché American horror way, this film is really smart, and well made. I was almost in tears at a few points because the storyline has some really sad parts; but any horror that triggers emotion, except for just fear, always makes it a better film in my opinion.

I think it is definitely worth watching if you get the chance to, its probably the best horror i've seen in a while.