By Lee Hyo-won
Staff Reporter
In a medical school lab, a dissection session goes terribly off course, with misused surgical knives (scalpels) and of course, an "undead" cadaver.
But "The Cut" is no zombie movie. Rather, it intricately dissects human fear and fascination with the dead, with hints of necrophilia looming over the blood-tainted story that blends Western medical practice with the Eastern concept of the undying, grudge-ridden soul.
Six medical students __ soulful Seon-hwa, arrogant Jung-seok, warmhearted Gi-beom, bookworm Eun-ju, goofy Kyeong-min and sexy Ji-yeong __ begin the long-anticipated anatomy course. The highly competitive yet close group of friends is presented with a cadaver of a young woman who was once beautiful, with a rose tattoo on her chest.
Yet ever since beginning the lesson, they are all haunted by the same nightmares and hallucinations __ a weeping woman and a doctor with a lame leg, whispering death.
One night, Eun-ju is trapped alone in the dissection lab. She screams for her life, but is rescued too late as she lays lifeless and heartless __ literally having had the organ surgically removed.
After Ji-yeon dies the same way and other horrible events ensue, Seon-hwa, Jung-seok and Gi-beom are convinced they are next. Everything points to the cadaver: while tracing the woman's past, the students discover that their professor, nicknamed "the technician" for his exceptional skills and coldness, is linked to the mystery and Seon-hwa must revisit her own secrets.
The director wished to "present horror blended with suspense and surprise, rather than horror for horror's sake", and the film escapes the predictable trap of gory cadavers. Instead, it offers suspense in the tradition of films like the "Scream" trilogy (1996-2000), marked by a series of inevitable deaths.
All six students are doomed to die in the same place in the same fashion: screeching noises and mournful cries signal death. However, the film retains an inherently Asian characteristic, with vengeful souls that evoke sympathy rather than being purely evil.
The film takes an unexpected turn and melodrama outweighs suspense toward the end. Horror manias may complain, but Korea's first ever cadaver dummy should be engrossing.
The audience becomes a cadaver as the camera rolls the viewpoint of a corpse, from being immersed in formalin to being stored in the freezer. The work also presents haunting images of bloody red rose petals falling from the sky, and the juxtaposition of youthful beauty with the dark shadows of death is striking.
Though "The Cut" is slightly flawed with caricature-esque characters repeating "I've waited all my life to hold the scalpel", it is worth noting the intriguing performance by young talent Han Ji-min (Seon-hwa).
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