Face
Face
| 11 June 2004 (USA)
Face Trailers

A serial killer is burning away the flesh of his victims with acid, leaving only the bones behind. The police turn to Hyun-min, a former forensic sculptor adept in reconstructing faces by examining and interpreting skulls. With the victim's bones in his house, Hyun-min's daughter begins to experience disturbing visions. As he races against time to find the answers and save his daughter, the deadly truth behind these victims reveals a sinister conspiracy that threatens everyone involved.

Reviews
Evengyny

Thanks for the memories!

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Beystiman

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

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Lachlan Coulson

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

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Fulke

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

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slayrrr666

"Face" is an extremely underwhelming genre-mixture that doesn't do enough for either.**SPOILERS**Tired of working a case, Det. Lee Hyun-min, (Shin Hyeon-jun) resigns so he can spend time with his ailing daughter Jin, (Kim Seung-wook) who has just received a heart transplant. Trying to help her, Jung Sun-young, (Song Yun-ah) arrives to ask his help for a police case in reconstructing an unidentified victim's face. As they continue their assignment together, he becomes worried when her condition becomes more severe, and suspects there might be more to the story behind it. Driven by research, he finds something sinister occurring that involves her surgeon and a secret organ-donating ring that supplies organs from runaways to surgery patients, and they all race to stop their actions before they can happen again.The Good News: There was some good stuff to this one. One of the best parts is that it features some really good attacks from the ghost where it gets somewhat exciting. There's a really brutal surgery scene in the beginning, where the bound victim is seen to be cut open with a scalpel, while still alive, and is then maneuvered in such a way as to appear that a series of inner organs had been removed during the process, which just makes it all the more creepy. Another surgery scene, only one that doesn't involve the brutality of the earlier scene, is just as good and actually has some rather uneasy moments to it. There's also a rather creepy scene where, while stopping at a railroad stop, a vision of a young girl being run over by a train completely unaware of the situation before seeing a series of dismembered body parts fly by before a vision of the disembodied head lands on top of the car and winks, which makes for a startling scene. This one even has a top-notch regeneration scene within that looks incredibly well-done and freaky, with the disjointed movements knocking the body into position, the complete inability to determine what it looks like before the finale and a just overall outstanding scene make for a fun time to be had. Perhaps what makes the scene all the best, though, is the fact that it manages to do the whole thing during a thunderstorm outside, which automatically makes it even creepier than it should be and makes the scene all the more striking. The way the mystery is built up in here is also quite nice, as the different elements seem to have very little in common but are woven together quite nicely, making for a well-designed if slow-building story. The last plus here is the finale, which is a lot of fun. From a full-on brawl to a series of close-calls on an operating table and the final shootout that results in a graphic demise, this ending here is pretty exciting and gets a lot going for it. These here are what work for the film.The Bad News: There was a couple of rather big flaws to this one that hold it down. One of the biggest issues is that the film is just so slow-paced that it's hard to get excited for anything in here. The beginning is mostly held up with the detective angle, which is mostly because it just consists of endless scenes of his working on a clay sculpture of a human head lecturing those around him about whatever pops into his head, from his daughter's condition to the finer exploits of the profession, and none of them are particularly interesting. They take up so much time in the beginning that there's no time at all for anything creepy to happen, unless a viewer is slightly unnerved by the sight of a human face without the skin attached. The extended nature of these scenes is where it goes down-hill, due to the fact that they take up so much of the time that there's just nothing left for any fun scenes to take over, which is how these fail. Also taking up a lot of time in the film is the rather cliché and totally unnecessary romance between the leads, which is not only found in just about most of these films anyway but is done so haphazardly that nothing makes any sense as to why it would start. It's just completely unneeded and doesn't add anything to the film without having anything important being added to the film. The last flaw to this is the film's rather dull detective angle. Due to the fact that the other detectives are running around with the information manages to really slow this one down when it needed to pick up the pace, and these scenes really just slow the film down. These here are the problems.The Final Verdict: A not entirely-spectacular ghost entry mixed with a detective film, making a film that's too slow for a ghost film and too dull for a detective film. Really only give this one a shot if you're into the style of thee or just curious, while those who are much more on-the-fence should heed caution.Rated UR/R: Graphic Violence and Language

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go_go_yubari_no_aku

This film reminded me of what happens when horror films meet CSI. Some things were really obvious but if you are in fact new to Korean horror start with this. Some may see it was a boring movie but to me Face was a fairly good story with a decent plot, and an all around shock, not scare, factor. If they just changed a few things around it might have been better. The overall ghost originality, though complained about, is understandable. Onryo are use a lot in the Asian culture.Their appearance is White burial kimono, Wild, unkempt long black hair, White and indigo face make-up called aiguma. Some of this appears in this movie of course. Now as for PLOT originality it was a smart plot, and it you are in fact only watching the move for its horror aspect you more then likely not like it.

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comic_bookguy

This is just another Asian horror where white painted ghosts are seen from "scary" angles with their heads bent down. There aren't any frightening scenes whatsoever, only clichés and repetitions from earlier (and better) films. The story isn't that bad really, but this would have been a lot better film without the supernatural bits. I mean, what is it with the Koreans and ghosts when it comes to horror? The Japanese and the Chinese have made a lot of good, creepy and gory movies without using ghosts in their stories. However, "Bloody Beach" is one good example of a Korean horror film sans ghosts. "Face" on the other hand is a typically dull example of just how one-note the Asian horror industry of today has become.

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HumanoidOfFlesh

Hyun-min is an expert at reconstructing faces of people from their skulls.His daughter undergoes a heart transplant and as her condition deteriorates,he quits his job to care of his daughter full time.Meanwhile,the police are dealing with a series of ghastly killings,where the victims have had all their flesh dissolved away with acid,leaving only the bones behind.A beautiful woman Sun-young shows up at his door with the skull of the fourth victim,hoping that he'll be able to reconstruct the face.Suddenly Hyun-min starts to see a creepy ghost of a young woman in a white robe."Face" is a creepy South Korean horror film with some effective scares.The story is actually totally captivating and there is enough twists to keep the viewer interested.There is a little bit of grisly gore and the acting is top-notch."Face" is not as good as "A Tale of Two Sisters" or "Tell Me Something",but it's still better than most of American crap being churned out today.Give it a look.8 out of 10.

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