On May 30, 1998, the legend of Whispering Corridors series began. At that time, horror genre films had seldom been produced in Korea and youth films also had almost dried out after Happiness Does Not Come In Grades (1989). Whispering Corridors was made by a combination of a new, unproven director and unknown cast, save for LEE Mi-youn, who played the teacher. Although the film was far enough away from the mainstream of the era, audience responded to the film quickly and more importantly, teens’ reaction was enormous even though it wasn’t released during the summer vacation season. The final box office result reached 2.5 million admissions (still the most successful installment of the series), an astounding number, considering it was an original film with a group of unknown cast.

 

The idea of the film was first incubated by producer OH Ki-min in the winter of 1997. But no one ever cared to the idea of a horror film because the genre was not popular and was considered a sub-genre at the time. After he had been rejected by more than 10 production companies, he finally met LEE Choon-yeon, the president of Cine 2000, who was interested in the idea, and director KANG Woo-suk, head of Cinema Service, joined the project and decided to invest in it after reading a short treatment. Even though a horror film had never reached any measure of success in Korean film industry, those three were pretty confident that this was going to be different. Director KANG Woo-suk, as the director of Happiness Does Not Come In Grades who led the boom of making youth films at the end of '80s, liked the concept of ‘dwelling ghosts at school' and producer OH focused on a potential combination of a horror film and a rebellious youth films like Linsay ANDERSON's If.... (1968). For president LEE, he was eager to challenge a different genre of film after making a thriller Deep Scratch (1994) by KIM Sunghong.

 

 

Whispering Corridors was a well-made film by mixing the conventions of the horror genre and the reality of the unique Korean educational system. The film begins on a late night, when teacher PARK calls someone and talks about a student, named Jin-ju. The next day, the body of PARK is discovered by students - Jio (KIM Kyu-ri) and Jay (CHOI Kang-hee). The school covers up the incident and then a new teacher, HUR (LEE Mi-youn), arrives as a substitute. Having graduated from the same high school, HUR comes to find traces of her friend, who died 9 years ago, in a series of ominous incidents. Jin-ju was an isolated student and classmates bullied her because she was a daughter of a female shaman. HUR and Jin-ju were very close friends, but PARK forced HUR to end her friendship with Jin-ju in order to focus on studying. Soon after, Jin-ju meets her end when she is bullied mercilessly by her classmates. Since then, a series of murders has occurred in the school and HUR and Jio come to realize that there is a link between subsequent murders and Jin-ju.

 

Whispering Corridors is still being evaluated as the best one in the series. PARK's line before her imminent death - “Jinju still dwells at school” - was constantly repeated in order to increase the tension, and the narrative and structure of the film were well organized. Taking benefits from the genre itself, the film successfully indentified with audience by realistically depicting high school life: violent teacher, sexual harassments, students concerned with only grades and students with inferiority complex. When those realistic factors combined with closed school system that insisted on covering up the truth, the film became more than just another horror or youth film. That might be the real reason why Korea Teacher's Association officially complained to the production company when it was released, but they accused the film for the scenes containing teacher's sexual harassment and excessive punishment.

 

The success of Whispering Corridors fasttracked the development of its sequel, Whispering Corridors 2: Memento Mori (1999). Even though there were 2-3 years of term between subsequent films in the series, this quick turnaround showed how much anticipation had built up for the sequel. While Memento Mori has often been considered as the best in the series by its fans, narratively it turned out to be a completely different film. And by giving a new sensitivity to the series, it resulted in the notion that “Whispering Corridors series is not frightening”. Memento Mori tells a story of three girls: Si-eun (LEE Young-jin) is an athlete with a hearing problem, Hyo-sin (PARK Ye-jin) is an accompanist for a school chorus who often hears strange sounds, and Mina (KIM Min-sun) is the narrator of the film and happens to pick up a diary that chronicled the exchanges between Si-eun and Hyo-sin. As Mina reads the diary and learns of their secret relationship, Hyo-sin suddenly jumps off the school roof and kills herself. It is revealed that Hyo-sin and Si-eun haven’t talked to each other since they had a fallout a month ago.

 

 Memento Mori was an elaborate masterpiece made by producer OH Ki-min and CEO LEE Choon-yeon in order to surpass what the previous film had achieved. While the director of Whispering Corridors , PARK Ki-hyung, had the experience of “the sensitivity of horror genre” with his short film, Expansive Delusion , Memento Mori 's co-directors KIM Tae-yong and MIN Kyu-dong (Korean Academy of Film Arts graduates) didn’t have such flair. Their first short film, Seventeen , was about teens looking for an outlet to quench their desires. While making Memento Mori , the young directors brought different ideas into the film. School's dark and gloomy atmosphere turned into a bright and daytime classroom full of girls’ chatters; instead of taking the common subject of horror film - ghost - the movie dealt with a matter of suicide. Above all, the film had homosexual tone as the basis of its narrative, which was an innovative challenge for conservative Koreans at the time. And it was a metaphor of deviation of two girls against that imposing the collective thinking to an individual and the society being operated under strict rules. However, the final box office score (400,000 admissions) was dismal compared to the previous record. There were several possible reasons for such failure. Releasing in December for a horror genre film was a bad marketing decision, and homosexuality theme in a horror film didn't fit in well. However, directors KIM Taeyong and MIN Kyu-dong became prominent figures in the Korean film industry thereafter.

 

Seeking a Newly Styled Film
Whispering Corridors 3: Wishing Stairs (2003) picked up on the topic of ‘jealousy'. While the first film dealt with school violence and the second did the love of youths, Wishing Stairs portrayed a story of an isolated student set in an arts school. ‘Wishing Stairs' is an actual place in the school, which consists of 28 steps and an accompanying tale about how one could walk up the steps while praying, only to find 29th step appearing before her and granting that wish. Dance classmates Jin-sung (SONG Ji-hyo) and So-hee are best friends, but Jin-sung was always second only to So-hee. When Jin-sung happens to hear teachers’ talks of a ballet competition and their decision to send So-hee as the school representative, she heads to the Wishing Stairs and eventually her wish comes true. Since Wishing Stairs was up against A Tale of Two Sisters , which was produced by the series creator OH (who left the series to produce the said film), Wishing Stairs had a lot of expectations to fill. While A Tale of Two Sisters was a critical and box office hit with over 3 million admissions, critics weren't as kind to Wishing Stairs upon its release. But the film brought attention its female director, YOON Jae-yeon. Wishing Stairs drew 1.8 million admissions and became the second hit of the series thus far.

 

 While Whispering Corridors4: Voice maintains the dishonor of being the worst box office performer (200,000 admissions), it is nonetheless a meaningful, unique attempt. Young-un (KIM Ok-vin) stays up late at school for her vocal training and suddenly realizes that someone is singing along with her. She tries to run away from the voice, but she ends up in being killed, slashed by music score. The next morning, Young-un awakes up from her sleep in the music room as if nothing has happened. But she is now a wandering spirit, and only her best friend, Sun-min (SEO Ji-hye) can hear her voice. Turns out another mysterious girl, Choa, can hear the voice of the dead, and she warns Sun-min not to trust Young-un too much, saying “The dead memorizes only what they want to memorize”. And soon the body of Young-un is discovered, and Youngun's voice turns deviously strange.

 

Voice is often compared to Memento Mori due to its attempt to renew the series by seeking a new style. Director CHOI Equan made the decision to focus the story from the shoes of a ghost to reveal the emotional core, instead of making another stereotypical horror film. Since many elements were already explored in the previous films, CHOI approached the film in a different way with a fresh story and a unique, vivid concept. For example, he took careful attention to sound design: disappearing voice, flickering bulbs synchronizing with the voice, and the noise from boiler room sounded alive and disturbed the audience. In spite of the director's ambitious approach, Voice bombed at the box office. Potential reason could be because the film went a step too far beyond audience's expectation just as Memento Mori did in the past.

 

Whispering Corridors series, 4 films so far, has accumulated 4.9 million admissions in total and only the 4th film didn’t reach the break-even point. And it has shown a pattern that the first and the third films, which adhered to the traditions of the horror genre, performed well; while the second and the fourth films failed to ignite the box office, but both films are noted for their unique styles and were well-received by the critics. Developed in Korean film industry, where franchises aren't the norm and where popular series don't go more than 3 films in any genres, this series is noted for having the vitality to keep on going and making distinct formulae and patterns that shape the genre. (LEE Choon-yeon often mentioned in interviews that he hopes to make at least 10 films for the series)

 

Above all, it should be noted that Whispering Corridors series has played an important role as a gateway for a number of new faces in Korean film industry. When it comes to actresses who starred in the series, the list is filled with dazzling names who became stars afterwards. The same can be said for a number of rising directors. PARK Ki-hyung of Whispering Corridors , KIM Taeyong and MIN Kyu-dong of Memento Mori have made more than 2 feature films since their debuts; YOON Jae-yeon of Wishing Stairs is currently finishing up her follow-up horror film Yoga , which stars Wishing Stairs alum PARK Han-byul; Voice 's CHOI Equan was a rare case where an assistant director (Whispering Corridors ) went onto direct a film in the series and he recently made Life Is Cool , Korea's first animation using rotoscoping technique that was utilized in Richard LINKLATER's Scanner Darkly and Waking Life . Also, RYOO Seung-wan, who is famous for his actioners such as Crying Fist and The City of Violence , was a crew member of Whispering Corridors ; director JEONG Jae-eun of Take Care of My Cat and The Aggressives was a script supervisor of Memento Mori .

 

There is a saying in the Korean film industry that goes “Even if the box office score may be terrible for a Whispering Corridors installment, the same can't be said for the actresses' future”. Young and aspiring newcomers are flocking to the auditions for the new Whispering Corridors film as it is known to lead to a bright future. KIM Kyuri of Whispering Corridors subsequently appeared on A Nightmare and Bunshinsaba as famed “Horror Queen”; PARK Jin-hee, who played a selfish bookworm student, starred in Underground Rendezvous , Shadows in the Palace and Lost & Found; CHOI Kang-hee, whose character held vital secret, appeared on My Scary Girl and continues to receive prominent roles. Memento Mori alums KIM Min-sun and PARK Ye-jin took role on several major films and TV series. PARK Han-byul of Wishing Stairs has appeared on Fate and a number of commercials; SONG Ji-hyo worked on Some and A Frozen Flower ; JO An has starred in numerous films including Spin Kick , Muoi: The Legend of a Portrait . Voice also featured a number of actresses who reached stardom as well. KIM Ok-vin went onto star in Dasepo Naughty Girls , TV drama ‘Over the Rainbow' and renown director PARK Chan-wook's latest effort Thirst ; SEO Ji-hye appeared on TV drama ‘Shin Don', ‘Over the Rainbow' and The Mafia, the Salesman ; CHA Ye-ryun worked on A Bloody Aria and another horror film Muoi: The Legend of a Portrait with JO An.

 

A Blood Pledge , the fifth and latest film in the series, inherits the tradition of the series; a combination of a new director and new faces. Director LEE Jong-yong worked for PARK Chan-wook as an assistant director in Threesome , Joint Security Area: JSA and co-wrote the script for Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance . For reasons mentioned above, the audition for main characters was highly competitive and the chance of landing the role was 5545:1. In the end newcomers OH Yeon-seo, JANG Kyung-a, SON Eunseo and YOO Shin-ae were lucky enough to break through the competition.

 It's been 4 years since the series' last installment and the anticipation is slowly building. The narrative of A Blood Pledge is revealed to be a collage of previous 4 films, as the director had originally intended. The film's central idea hinges on the notion that adolescent girls are always together and the film depicts a group of friends who promises to stay together forever; school, study group, washroom and even during their moments of death. The ghost theme is taken from Whispering Corridors , the suicide theme is from Memento Mori , and the jealousy motif recalls Wishing Stairs . Taking this collage technique seems to be meaningful and a well-timed project at the moment as the series is being expected to produce more films. It's interesting to think how the series will evolve when its 20th anniversary comes around.