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Say, Yes

Other // Unrated // February 5, 2002
List Price: $35.95 [Buy now and save at Hkflix]

Review by J. Doyle Wallis | posted February 13, 2002 | E-mail the Author
The Story: Jung-hyun and Yoon-hee are a happy couple, married for just a year, and really the only problem they have is with finances and their respective careers. While her husband struggled to get his novel published, Yoon-hee quit school and took a part time job as a translator in order to support them. Then, their lives seem to be on the right track. Jung-hyun comes home one day with the happy news that he has finally gotten published, and in order to celebrate the occasion, he has bought them a car and planned a beach and spa vacation for the weekend. They depart on their trip, but, while exiting a rest stop, Jung-hyun accidentally hits a man. Although the guy is a bit of a stone faced weirdo, Jung-hyun feels so guilty he agrees to give the man a ride as far as their next stop.

But, there is an extreme unease surrounding this dark stranger, and after creating a very uncomfortable mood in the tiny car, the man coldly asks them, "How much longer do you want to live?".

And, so begins a terrifying weekend in the life of the couple. For some reason this stranger has targeted them, and he slyly weaves himself in and out of their lives, while also making it difficult for them to get any outside help. And whether or not just one of them survives the ordeal seems to involve saying one simple word, "Yes". But, the consequences of saying "yes" to his request is unfathomable for anyone, much less a couple that is in love.

The Film: The 2001 Korean horror film Say, Yes is another in the long line of psychopathic drifter films like The Hitcher, Hitch-Hike, and The Devil Thumbs a Ride. As a matter of fact it borrows pretty liberally from The Hitcher, as well as a certain modern horror masterpiece (a film so well known if I mention it I'll spoil the finale). Basically, despite the unoriginality, it starts out rather promising before trudging through too much bad horror clichés and lack of logic. What is rather odd is how slick the film is, featuring a believable couple and a few keen little suspense pieces- ranging from simple little shocking scenes involving a rock thrown through a window, to a full on big truck and car chases, to a harrowing torture scene. But, it still stumbles into too much that is unbelievable- for instance (this is early in the film so its not really a spoiler) the drifter frames Jung-hyun, gets him arrested, and says that the only way he'll agree to dropping the charges is if Jung-hyun apologizes and (secretly he arranges with Yoon-hee) that they let him ride with them some more. Now, honestly, if some guy had just nearly murdered you and cast hints that he'd like to rape your wife, would you agree to let him tag along with you?

What it all boils down to is this- The Hitcher was brilliant because it is like a surreal nightmare with plenty of amped up action, going from suspense set up to suspense set up. It defied logic, like a dream and had a charismatic, otherworldly villain. In Say, Yes we have basically the same premise and type of villain, only here, it is less suspenseful because it doesn't fully let go of reality and has a villain that is less charismatic and more just plain creepy... But, horror is as subjective as comedy. Just because I couldn't lose myself in the film, that doesn't mean a lot of horror fans wont really enjoy it. I could be jaded from reading too many true crime books. I'd say the easygoing horror fan, the Halloween 2, Valentine, Sleepy Hollow crowd will really enjoy it... It is really nice production, and while it does have copious amounts of blood, stabbings, and bone breaking, its not really graphic, more subtle and effectively gory/queasy in its scenes. So, it is a nice curiosity, that although I was annoyed by its story flaws, I was still very entertained and would hesitantly recommend it to die-hard horror fans.

I looked up the stars the director on the imdb. Director Sung-Hong Kim's most recent films were titled Deep Scratch and A Growing Business, neither of which I recognize. The drifter is a well known face in Asian cinema, he's primarily a comedian and low budget action star named Joon-Hung Park. The girl playing Yoon-hee is named Sang Mu Chi, and she has starred in a few films, including another Korean horror called Soul Guardians. The actor playing the husband apparently hasn't been in anything else yet.

The DVD: 20th Century Fox Korea, so it is a high caliber DVD, level with Fox's US releases. DVD says Region 3 on the back but is NTSC All Region.

Picture- Letterboxed, Anamorphic, 1:85:1. It is a pretty slick production, on par with any average budgeted Hollywood film, and it is well represented by this DVD. Strong color and sharpness, great black levels, and little/no signs of wear and tear on the print.

Sound- Dolby Digital 5.1 Korean language with optional English and Korean subtitles. Fantastic sound, clear and pretty dynamic, a superb sound mix, eerie music, crashes, rain, and other mood enhancing sound comes through really well.

Extras- 24 Chapters--- Theatrical Trailer--- Cast & Director Profiles--- Interviews with the director and three main stars (pretty brief)--- Making of segment, featuring behind the scenes looks at several film sequences--- Here is where we come to the "international" problem, the Profiles, Interviews and Making Of segments are all in Korean with no subtitles, so normally they would be great extras but for those of us who don't speak Korean, they don't do us much good (although it was still kind of neat to watch the behind the scenes stuff).


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