THE WIG

(A.k.a. GABAL)

Su-hyeon (Min-seo Chae, DON'T TELL PAPA) is picked up from hospital by her sister Ji-hyeon (Seon Yu, BLACK HOUSE).

Su-hyeon, we learn, is suffering from terminal cancer. But Ji-hyeon has decided - much against the doctors' wishes - to tell her sister that she is cured, and that is why she has been discharged from care.

The first gift that Ji-hyeon gives to Su-hyeon is a long black wig, hoping to put her sister at ease and disguise her baldness. When they return to Ji-hyeon's unnaturally dark apartment that evening, the wig is hung up on a hook in Su-hyeon's bedroom.

But the wig won't stay put: it keeps finding it's way onto the floor. Until eventually Su-hyeon decides to try it on for size.

She keeps it for dinner that evening, where we meet Ji-hyeon's boyfriend Ki-seok, who clearly knows the truth about Su-hyeon's condition and is uncomfortable about keeping it from her. She jokes flirtatiously with him, telling him that if he's lost interest in Ji-hyeon he can always go out with her instead.

The funny thing is, Ki-seok has lost interest in his girlfriend. At the end of the evening he tells her he will stick around and continue to smile until Su-hyeon "leaves", then the two of them will have to sort their differences out.

So far, so miserable. Ji-hyeon's relationship is on the rocks and she's carrying the terrible burden of looking after her obliviously terminal sister during her final days.

There's more misery in store: Su-hyeon is hiding her medication under her bed, which means the cancer will be killing her quicker than ever; Ki-seok grows increasingly distant towards Ji-hyeon; and Kyungjoo, Ji-hyeon's friend, turns up with the news that her cheating husband wants a divorce.

But Kyungjoo at least sees a chance at winning her husband back, when she spies Su-hyeon's wig while she's showering, and decides to loan it for the evening. Yes, all it takes to reclaim your fella once his eye has started to roam is a wig.

Unfortunately, it transpires Su-hyeon has grown rather attached to her wig and freaks out when she can't find it. Ji-hyeon texts her friend, asking for the wig back. Sure enough, the wig turns up at their house the following morning and all seems well … until Ji-hyeon receives a call from the police informing her that Kyungjoo and her husband are both dead.

Events get even weirder as Su-hyeon starts hallucinating gory images of her wig strangling a woman on the back of a bus, and Ji-hyeon loses her voice. Also, the doctor meets with Ji-hyeon to tell her that Su-hyeon is showing signs of improving. Which is all very odd.

The doctor reckons Su-hyeon's improved condition is most likely to her mind thinking she's been cured. However, it could be down to the renewed confidence her precious wig has given her. Or, of course, her love for Ki-seok!

With identity struggles (symbolised by much staring into mirrors), heavy-handed themes of memory and loss, and the prospect of two sisters both being in love with the same stupid bloke, THE WIG is destined for an unhappy ending.

Playing toyfully with the balance between allowing the viewer to agree with Ji-hyeon that the wig is cursed, and the possibility that one or both of the sisters are mad, THE WIG does at least try to intrigue.

But it's completely undone within minutes by a distinct sense of deja-vu. It's fair to say you can second-guess the path of any Asian horror film (in this case Korean) these days. And THE WIG follows suit: the straight long black hair (the actual wig); the flash-edits of ghostly images; the confusing hallucinatory sequences thrown in clumsily to remind us this is a horror show; the downbeat ending; the heavy leaning towards familial crises as a backdrop to the story; the laconic pacing; the muted colour schemes; the villainous female … it's all here.

Depressingly by-the-numbers, there's nothing new or memorable about THE WIG whatsoever. It follows the route of so many other films of it's kind, ticking the above boxes while essentially spending half of it's running time being a painfully slow drama before careering into stylish but sterile horror territory.

It's boring.

The UK disc presents the film in a nice and sharp 1.78:1 aspect ratio, anamorphically enhanced for 16x9 TVs.

The picture quality is very good. Colours are muted, but that tends to be how Asian horror films are shot. If anything, it's a little dark - but again, the drab look of the film isn't just another example of it being one cliché after another.

The Korean soundtrack is available in stereo and 5.1 mixes, both of which offer nicely balanced playback.

An animated main menu pages leads to a static scene-selection menu, allowing access to the main feature via 16 chapters.

There are no extras on this screener disc.

THE WIG is oppressively bleak at the best of times. When it remembers to be a horror film, it does so either as weak afterthought (the MTV-style flashes of nastiness on the screen) or a silly finale that while ultimately quite moving, has been seen far too many times.

Review by Stuart Willis