The Whispering Corridors series of horror films are a mix of Ju-On and Ringu with a dash of something else, and a sprinkle of originality that offers three different films with the same theme of ghosts, revenge and death. The third in the series, and arguably the best of the three, is Wishing Stairs.

Jin-Su and Su-hee are best friends at school. There’s an aggressively strong bond of platonic love, particularly from Su-hee who cares deeply for Jin-Su. The friendship turns sour, however, when a ballet competition begins, with only a single entrant from the school being allowed to enter.

With both of them being in the same class, Jin-Su is considered the lesser performing of the two, with Su-hee being both popular at school and better at the peformance art than her other half. This creates a bitterness that isn’t fully realised until the end of the film, but it certainly takes the adage, “what goes around, comes around” to an extremeity that is well realised in the film.

Hae-ju is a sort of floating acquaintence of both Jin-su and Su-hee, and is often picked on and bullied for being rather grossly fat and eating the equivalent of armchairs, such is her hunger. Jin-Su stays in school dorms, and a rumour persists that there is a ghostly 29th step amongst the 28 that leads to the front entrance to the dorms. Hae-ju is the first to entertain this idea, and in doing so makes a wish on the 29th step that she would like to lose weight. She tells this tale to Jin-su during a moment together, but never entertains the extremes she goes through to lose her weight.

With the competition only taking one candidate, Jin-Su is desperate, frustrated and angry at Su-hee gaining favour and appreciation. She decides to climb the steps, and makes her wish to be the only one who enters the competition. Her wish, of course, comes true, but this results in the sacrifice of Su-hee losing her ability to walk, and thus passing the opportunity to Jin-Su. Things take a bigger turn for the worst when Su-hee suffers a fatality, and with Hae-ju being an admirer, decides to make another wish which will cast disaster for the three involved.

Wishing Stairs is one of the better ghostly horrors of the Ringu ilk, offering fun tale of morbid cunning, ghostly vengeance, spiritual possession and the nastiness of human greed. It’s mostly a moralistic tale, that of greed and jealousy being the true evil, with spiritual element taking a back seat. In reality many of the events that take place are about opportunity, and therefore can be said that they had no infleunce from the “other side”. Guilt, as is the case here, often rears its ugly head once yu’ve endeavoured to take the most gruesome way forwrd to achieve your goals, and therefore the ghostly apparitions are actually the guilt personified, eating away at the soul and mind.

I enjoyed the film, but it passes itself as a horror, which is a mislabelling in my opinion. True, there are ghosts, yes there are possessions and some degree of violence and gore, but nothing so extreme that can be considered horrific, and therefore a horror. By all accounts, Reservoir Dogs is much more violent, but you wouldn’t class that as a horror. There aren’t any shocks as such either. The film is interestingly predictable, but it’s towards the latter half that the bigger truth is unveiled, and you question the sympathies that lie with certain character. You also consider the genuine reality of the 29 steps, with certain revelations denouncing such a myth. It does throw a few questions up in there, about what’s really going on.

Flaws are apparent, aside from the predictability for most of the film, such as the often used and almost wincing expectation of the long haired figure that crawls through a space, representing a demon or ghost out for vengeance. This is the Japanese equivalent of American style ghosts that appear as transluscent figures. I;m tired of both, but more so of the former, as it was Ringu that really brought this to the fore and since then any Asian horror seems to take this on board and use it. This film is Korean.

By comparison, I thought the Korean film Kakashi was far better in keeping with traditional tales of ghost stories (the dead return in the bodies of scarecrows). The same probably coulnd’t be applied here, but I wish the Asian horrors would drop this and come up with something new as it’s becoming incredibly tiresome. I jut roll my eyes, sigh and wonder in disbelief everytime I see the same method being used in all these films to scare the viewer. Don’t directors know the same trick doesn’t work twice?

Performances are good all round, though, in particular I thought the girl playing Hae-Ju was brilliant as the bubbly, psychotic and depressed individual with the body of a young girl and the mind and attitude of a child. Perhaps there is some indiciation of a disability in her character, but there was a definite eccentricity about Hae-ju that is endearing, and often sympathetic to her cause, especially when she becomes involved in more ghostly happenings. The two leads playing Jin-su and Su-hee respectively, are also engaging, though both start to fall short when the spiritual elements come into play.

The film does well without the spirituality, so I have to wonder why it was needed. If they carried on, with the suggestion of spiritual influence, but left it more to the humanity of each character on making the decisions, I think the impact, particularly with the final revelations, would have been far greater. In the end it turns out to be a bit of a whimper; sort of like a dog thinking it’s getting castrated, becoming all hysterical only to discover that the tension was for nothing since it’s only having it’s teeth cleaned. At least it still has it’s balls, which is perhaps a relief, but I digress.

Korea proves, as it has done several times, that it can make films of almost any genre and compete with the best of them. After the release of My Sassy Girl and My Wife is a Gangster, Korea was considered the new Hong Kong of films. I think there’s an injustice in that sentiment, as Korean films don’t need to be praised by comparison as they definitely stand firmly on their own, often offering their own twists and quirks. If anything, Hong Kong is the current trailer when it comes to making good films; churning out a Crouching Tiger or like film, once in a while. Korea has it’s share of sequels and mediocirty, but it’s certainly learning and growing as they make more films. A Tale of Two Sisters is a satisfying, if predictable, example of that, and I would add Wishing Stairs to that list.

A film that is enjoyable and entertaining, with engagaing characters and a good story. For me the ghost element is simply a hinderance to what could have been a better film, so in that sense it’s above average but not quite as good as it could have been. It’s definitely worth a watch, and stands a good few head and shoulders above the drivel that’s offered in the form of Ju-On or the US version of Asian horrors.

Verdict: A decent, if not great, film. No shocks, no horror, but some entertaining performances and a mostly solid ghostly tale