Into The Mirror VCD

The business of Dreampia, a department store where a destructive fire occurred a year ago, is about to start again and so is the horror. A number of staff members are mysteriously killed in places with mirrors and the ways they die are sure to give you the creeps: one has his throat cut open by a pizza cutter, one has a pen stabbed deep from his ear to his brain and one has his waist twisted so extremely that he dies. It is actually not the first time that mirrors seem to have brought death to this department store. Woo Young-min (Yoo Ji-tae), the security manager of the store and a former detective, mistakenly took the life of his partner by shooting at a mirror in a hostage case. Already being punished by guilt, Young-min at one night shift makes a mysterious discovery …

A distorted version of "The Mirror Stage" appears to be the theme of this movie. "The Mirror Stage" was first proposed in 1936 by the French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan (1901-1981). Lacan establishes that there is a mirror in everybody's mind and the mirror reflects our respective values. Creating a self-image in the mirror is therefore the first stage of self-understanding. Lacan's "The Mirror Stage" is said to be distorted in "In the Mirror" because the reflections of Young-min, the deceased and the suspect in the mirror are not the self-images they believe they have. Due to the past experience, their values have been distorted and that reflects on the image they see themselves. The horrible side of the world they can only see in the mirror thus gives "her", the culprit, chances to gain power in the dark side.

Kim Sung-ho the director makes a bold attempt in his debut work by making use of "The Mirror Stage" and some engrossing stories behind some famous paintings featuring people in the mirror. The investigation initiated by Young-min and the police in the movie is led smoothly by the idea of mirrors. While the terror starts due to the disequilibrium brought by mirror images, it ends by having the image of the culprit reflected in a mirror. One big selling point of this movie, which also makes the ending so intriguing, is that even though the images of the dead vanish from the mirror, their souls forever remain there. This movie makes such a great start in the director journey of Kim Sung-ho as he manages to utilize the mirror concept to generate a series of climatic events.

Despite the absorbing plot, the cast does not make a big impression. It seems that Yoo Ji-tae has not completely devoted himself to the film. Even though he has lots of opportunities to establish his leading actor position in the scene in which he finally realizes his real existence, he does not give his best and so cannot show the self-condemned misery his character has been through. Similar comments also apply to Kim Hye-na who plays the twin sisters Lee Ji-hyun and and Lee Jung-hyun. There should be a clearer distinction between the two roles as it is confusing enough to have one person playing a pair of twins.

Into the Mirror may not be like those classic horror movies but the fear brought by those mirrors in the film is thrilling enough. You can't help wondering who exactly the one you see in the mirror is. It is indeed the magic of Into the Mirror: Mirrors may tell your appearance but they can also tell your deepest darkest fears and desires. You therefore can't deceive a mirror, just like you can't deceive yourself.

Reviewed by: garden (Hong Kong)

Translated by Holly (Hong Kong)