White: Melody of Death
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| White: Melody of Death | |
|---|---|
 Film poster | |
| Hangul | 화이트: 저주의 멜로디 |
| Revised Romanization | Hwaiteu: jeojooui mellodi |
| McCune–Reischauer | Hwait‘ŭ: chŏjuŭi melrodi |
| Directed by | Kim Gok Kim Sun |
| Written by | Kim Gok Kim Sun |
| Starring | Ham Eun-jeong Hwang Woo-seul-hye May Doni Kim |
Production company | DOO Entertainment |
| Distributed by | CJ Entertainment |
Release date |
|
Running time | 106 minutes |
| Country | South Korea |
| Language | Korean |
| Box office | US$5,299,831[1] |
White: Melody of Death (Korean: 화이트: 저주의 멜로디; RR: Hwaiteu: Jeojooui Mellodi, lit. White: The Melody of the Curse) is a 2011 South Korean horror film by Kim Gok and Kim Sun.
Plot[]
The film opens with a K-pop girl group called "Pink Dolls" about to perform in a televised competition. They lose to the more mainstream girl group, Pure (played by After School). The group - Je-ni, a singer insecure with hitting high notes, A-rang, a singer who is addicted to plastic surgery, Shin-ji, who can't sing but is an excellent dancer, and Eun-ju, the eldest and a former back-up dancer - does not get along. Although Eun-ju attempts to be a good leader and reach out to the members, Je-ni and A-rang believe she is a failure, while Shin-ji is an abrasive loner who does not get along with anyone. Eun-ju's only friend is Soon-ye, a former trainee who is now a vocal teacher and performs doubling for various acts. The two go to a karaoke bar where Eun-ju laments how the other girls don't like her and her fears that they will never become famous. Soon-ye reassures her and says that if the group doesn't work out, she will form a duo with Eun-ju called "LaLa Sisters", to which Eun-ju smiles and accepts.
The group is informed they will be moving to a new studio, thanks to Eun-ju's "sponsor" (someone who funds an idol or group on the condition they receive sexual favors). The sponsor's father had previously owned the building, but following a fire that killed him and nine others, the building has been empty. As she helps prepare the studio, Eun-ju discovers a tape entitled "White"; and upon playing it discovers it is an old unreleased music video. She shows it to her manager, who believes the song might have the right tune for the group's success, and as the rights to the song are unknown, they are given permission to use the song. The group performs "White" on stage (although Soon-ye does the doubling for Je-ni's high notes), and the group becomes an overnight viral sensation. As the group's popularity rises, however, the tensions between the members become more pronounced, with each girl becoming jealous, resentful and paranoid, and desperate to become the main vocalist, or "main".
Je-ni is chosen as the first "main", but is insecure, especially following an incident where a maliciously edited video of her is uploaded to the group's online fan club. One evening, Eun-ju hears a strange noise coming from the recording booth and finds Je-ni being forced to sing her high note over and over again while surrounded by empty packets of medication. As Eun-ju watches in horror, Je-ni's high note becomes a scream as she is suddenly lifted into the air with a microphone cable around her neck, then vomits up her medication as Eun-ju tries desperately to save her.
The next day it is announced that Je-ni had apparently overdosed on her medication and has been hospitalized, and A-rang will be the new "main". Prior to a video shoot, A-rang hallucinates that the cosmetics she is applying to her face are actually containers of blood and screams in horror. During the shoot, she begins struggling to keep up, complaining that it is too hot in the studio. Eun-ju, watching from behind the crew, notices that A-rang's face is distorted on the screen, and her eyes have turned a whitish blue. As A-rang continues to try to film the shoot, she begins bleeding from the eyes, and is attacked by two disembodied, rotted hands that emerge from the back of her head and claw at her face. She falls off the stage and is also hospitalized, with the official reasoning being that she had a bad reaction to some cosmetics.
The next day at dance practice, Shin-ji suddenly begins moving erratically while her eyes roll back in her head. None of the other people in the room seem to notice except Eun-ju, who briefly sees another person's face appear over Shin-ji's. Shortly after this incident, Eun-ju discovers someone has uploaded a video of A-rang with a distorted face to the group's fan club, similar to the video of Je-ni. That evening, while practicing the dance alone, Shin-ji but is attacked by a terrifying figure that first takes her form (albeit with a mutilated face), then as a figure with long white hair, which lunges at her from a mirror.
Eun-ju and Soon-ye begin investigating "White" and the studio's history, discovering that one of the people killed in the fire was Jamg Ye-bin, a competitive, selfish girl who was considered the most promising talent at the agency and had been chosen to be the main vocalist in "White". Soon-ye mentions another person - a trainee back-up dancer - had committed suicide by poisoning at the agency shortly before the fire, and how everybody had suspected Ye-bin of being the reason why. The two speculate that since the word "hot" keeps coming up, it must be the spirit of Ye-bin (reasoning that "hot" means "fire"). Soon-ye mentions that the agency had a sponsor who manipulated the trainees, and that Ye-bin got the role of "main" after sleeping with him, but that her first video as "main" was cancelled due to the video being damaged, and the fire occurred on the day of the re-shoot. Eun-ju says that she believes the song is cursed and someone purposefully set the fire to kill Ye-bin and become "main", causing Ye-bin to become a malicious spirit.
Meanwhile, Shin-ji attempts to film a reality show, but is nearly trampled by fans and then gets caught on a crane and lifted into the air. As she struggles to free herself, she looks up to see the same terrifying apparition with a distorted face leering at her, and the crane collapses, crushing her beneath it and causing her to be hospitalized.
Eun-ju and Soon-ye take the video to Tae-yong, a video technician, who discovers that the reason the original video was no good was because Ye-bin's face had been distorted/damaged. Eun-ju speculates that it was done maliciously, and that this is the reason Ye-bin committed suicide. Soon-ye says she should ask for help from her manager, and Eun-ju agrees, saying she will either get her or her sponsor to help. While Eun-ju's manager drives her to meet with the sponsor, she asks her why she changed her mind about meeting with him. Eun-ju says she wanted to be the "main" and was doing whatever it took. The manager empathizes with her, saying it was the same in her time, and would more than likely be the same in the future too. While meeting with her sponsor, The sponsor tells her the building had once belonged to his father (who had died in the fire), and that the trainee his father had slept with was incredibly talented, writing their songs and choreographing their dances. Eun-ju asks if the trainee was Jang Ye-bin, and the sponsor says he never knew her name, only that her face was damaged and she was unable to do the video shoot afterwards, committing suicide shortly after. He then has sex with a clearly unwilling Eun-ju.
After she returns to the studio, Eun-ju receives a series of visions about a young girl dressed in white and wearing a white wig. The girl is seen writing music, then presenting it with shaking hands to the sponsor's father, who puts a glass of alcohol down on it and proceeds to push her down over the table and have sex with her. As Eun-ju watches in horror, she then sees the girl being shoved to the ground and surrounded by other trainees who pour acid on her face, disfiguring her while she screams in agony. Finally, the girl is shown writing a suicide note, vomiting profusely, and then starting the fire. Shocked, Eun-ju smashes a section of lighting in the floor, knocking out power to the whole building before fainting. While the police examine the destruction, they find charred pieces of a suicide note, which Eun-ju believes to have been Ye-bin's. The note reads "My dance and song were taken, and my face was ruined. I have decided on suicide as a last resort. It's so hot..."
Soon-ye and Eun-ju go to Ye-bin's gravesite and make an offering, saying that they hope she can rest peacefully now that the truth has been uncovered. After the two leave, however, the glass on a picture of Ye-bin is cracked by an unseen force. On the drive back, Soon-ye reassures Eun-ju that the curse is over and everything is fine, and Eun-ju removes her sunglasses and smirks. Now that she is a solo singer, Eun-ju suddenly becomes far more confident and arrogant, referring to herself as "White" and dresses in all white with a white wig. During a visit to her practice session, Soon-ye remarks on how hot the studio is, to which Eun-ju replies that she finds it cold. While being interviewed, she denies ever having been a back-up dancer, and takes credit for the song and choreography to her solo performance, startling Soon-ye.
A-rang, Je-ni and Shin-ji awaken in hospital only to see Eun-ju on TV, and are extremely jealous, especially as they are now relegated to hosting a tacky singing show. They meet with Eun-ju, who informs them of the curse and that it has been broken, although the other members are skeptical, with A-rang first accusing Eun-ju of poisoning them, and then asking why Ye-bin would have met with a sponsor, when she was already guaranteed to debut. Eun-ju brushes this off, but Soon-ye seems pensive. A-rang attempts to insult Eun-ju, who mocks the others and tells them to call her if they run out of gigs, and says she will see if they can be her back-up dancers.
Soon-ye begins to delete all the files concerning "White" from her computer, but after listening to the song one last time, rushes to Tae-yong's studio again. At the same time, Je-ni, A-rang and Shin-ji prepare for the filming of their music show, but begin shaking and sweating. Soon-ye and Tae-yong tech discover that it is not actually Ye-bin singing on the original track, and realize that the suicide note didn't have a name on it and might not have actually been Ye-bin's. While examining the video again, Tae-yong remarks that the room has suddenly become very hot. At the same time, a call comes in to say that Je-ni and A-rang have drunk bleach, collapsed and may be dead. As Tae-yong turns on a video feed, the caller screams for someone to stop Shin-Ji. The feed shows Je-ni and A-rang convulsing in pools of blood, while Shin-ji turns to the camera and lifts a bottle of bleach before drinking it and also collapsing. At the same time, a ghastly white face flashes briefly on the screen behind her. Shocked, Soon-ye and Tae-yong recoil while the thermometer in the studio climbs almost to the highest point. Soon-ye attempts to call and warn Eun-ju that the curse hasn't been broken and "White" was not Ye-bin, but Eun-ju angrily dismisses her, shouting that she is now the main before hanging up.
Tae-yong then discovers that it is not actually Ye-bin's face that was damaged, but the film itself. He and Soon-ye take the distorted clips that were uploaded to the fan club and put them together, revealing the phrase "It's so hot here in my heart". The two go through the list of names of people who died in the fire, again thinking that "hot" must mean the person died in the fire. Soon-ye mentions the trainee who committed suicide before the fire by drinking poison, and suddenly realizes that "hot" refers to the burning from drinking bleach. In a flashback, it's revealed that the trainee committed suicide by drinking bleach in front of Ye-bin, while she watched and smiled maliciously. Tae-yong then notices that Eun-ju's clip matches up perfectly with another section of the music, and joins them. Soon-ye attempts to stop him, screaming that they don't need to know any more and that it's the nameless trainee who is the ghost. Tae-yong manages to play the clip, which is "Here, behind you", and they realize there is a ghost dancing behind Ye-bin in the clip. At the same time, the thermometer in the studio explodes and begins leaking a thick, red liquid.
Eun-ju, who is in the car on the way to her first solo performance as "White", begins sweating heavily, while the same apparition that attacked the other members is revealed to be seated behind her. It slowly approaches her, but vanishes once the car exits a tunnel. She arrives at the studio but is continually sweating and on edge, remarking that it is hot in the studio. She then remembers that each of the other members said the same thing before they were attacked, and realizes that Soon-ye was right. She hears an announcement for her and her eight backup dancers to go on-stage and says that they have nine back-up dancers, but her manager confirms there are only eight. She asks for a bit more time, and is told she can have five minutes. The manager attempts to comfort her, saying she should think of it as her "last" performance, and that she shouldn't feel any regret. Eun-ju bitterly replies it's not like she had a choice, and says she will be right out. Upon checking the online fan club, she sees a video of her with a distorted face has been uploaded, and she is unable to delete it.
Soon-ye and Tae-yong race to the studio in an attempt to save Eun-ju, but are caught in traffic. Soon-ye takes her bike and makes it to the studio, but is unable to make it to the stage. While performing the song, Eun-ju is attacked by the ghost, who kills both the manager and the sponsor by burning them with pyrotechnics and impaling with a light fixture respectively. This causes the fans to panic, and when Eun-ju leaps off the stage in an attempt to escape, she is knocked to the ground and trampled to death by panicked fans. A horrified Soon-ye watches Eun-ju die via a monitor, and then sees the ghost standing on the stage. The ghost then overloads the wiring, causing a massive fire and stands staring at Soon-ye while everything burns around her.
Following a news report on the fire, a flashback occurs revealing the true story of the ghost. While sitting and writing music, the trainee is attacked by Ye-bin and a group of girls. Ye-bin tells her that she had been warned "not to stand out", as she was "nothing but a back-up dancer". She then pours acid on the girl's face, asking her "How does it feel to be main vocalist?" and mockingly saying "Let's see how far you can go with that ugly face". The trainee later commits suicide by drinking bleach, while Ye-bin is shown watching her and smiling maliciously. Ye-bin then takes the trainee's wig and wears it, but begins feeling like she is being watched. She sees the ghost of the trainee onstage behind the other dancers, and becomes hysterical, attacking the other dancers before fleeing. She attempts to conceal her crimes by burning the trainee's suicide note, but is startled by the ghost's disfigured and blood-covered face appearing in front of her. She then drops the note, sparking a large fire, and burns to death while the ghost stands and watches.
Some time later, Soon-ye goes back to the karaoke bar, and places the original VHS recording of "White", a copy of the trainee's suicide note and a CD copy of Eun-ju's version of the song into a garbage bin (which is autographed "To LaLa Sisters: Thanks... and Sorry") and lights it on fire. Sobbing, she watches everything burn, believing that the curse has been broken. She then hears the karaoke machine activate and turns in horror as it announces "Song chosen - 'White'", thus implying that the curse has not been broken and she too will be killed.
Cast[]
- Ham Eun-jeong as Eun-ju
- May Doni Kim as Shin-ji
- Choi Ah-ra as A-rang
- Jin Se-yeon as Je-ni
- Hwang Woo-seul-hye as Soon-ye
- After School as Pure
- Yu Mo-ri as Jang Ye-bin
- Kim Soo-hyun as White
- Lee Junho as Music Fever host
Soundtrack[]
The soundtrack contains 3 versions of the song "White," the original (the one featured on the VHS tape), another sung by PinkDolls (Ham Eun-jeong, May Doni Kim, Choi Ah-ra and Jin Se-yeon), and a solo version with just Eun-jeong.[citation needed]
Reception[]
The film grossed US$1,265,702 its opening weekend landing at the fifth position of the box office chart.[2] In total the film grossed US$5,299,831 by the end of its theatrical run.[1] The film received a total of 791,133 admissions nationwide.[3]
References[]
External links[]
- 2011 films
- Korean-language films
- South Korean horror films
- South Korean films
- 2011 horror films
- Concert films
- CJ Entertainment films