"You must have a house of your own." That’s the message that Pil-gi’s father hammered into his head when, as a child, he followed his itinerant dad through years of poverty. After a decade of double shifts (engineer by day, taxi driver for drunks by night) Pil-gi is finally rich enough to honour his father’s wishes. And what a dream home he’s found. There’s only one problem. It’s haunted, and the ghost makes it clear to Pil-gi, by way of various shocking poltergeist tricks, that he isn’t the least bit welcome there. After the cops treat him like a joke and assorted exorcists of various faiths fail to drive the ghost out, Pil-gi is faced with a difficult choice—give up and let the ghost have its house, or steel himself for a supernatural face-off that will leave only one of them in possession (pardon the pun) of the prime piece of real estate. The question now is, which of the two is more stubborn?

After tackling the tribulations of alienated youth (Attack the Gas Station), thorny romance (Kick the Moon) and prison politics (Jail Breakers), Korean director Kim Sang-jin has found a new angle for his remarkable sensibility. Ghost House, like its predecessors, is initially a rambunctious black comedy, which gradually unfolds into a thoughtful, humane examination of the human condition. Of course, this is the first time that Kim has stepped through the looking glass and thrown himself into the realm of the fantastic and the fearful. For all its ghastly, ghostly goings-on and inventive effects, however, Ghost House is nonetheless primarily a study of stubbornness and the lengths that people will go to in order to ease the pain of regret. Handsome Cha Seung-wan, whom you’ll remember from his turn in Kick the Moon, delivers a great turn as the long-suffering Pil-gi.

—Rupert Bottenberg

Director: Kim Sang-Jin
Screenplay: Kim Sang-jin
Cast: Cha Seung-won, Jang Seo-hee, Jang Hang-sun, Sohn Tae-young
Producers: Lee Min-ho
Distributor: Cinema Service