How I See It (Spoilers)

Okay so I've been on an Asian horror fest for the past few days and this was one of the films I watched. I thought it was pretty good but the ending could have been a lot better, I'll explain later.

So we learn at the end of the movie that Jiwon has been possesed by the spirit of Su-in, explaining why she can't remember so many things and the change in her personality since the incident at the lake. Su-in's dream was to be like Jiwon, which is pretty sad considering Jiwon was a total bitch but there we go. I think during the drowning at the lake when Su-in realised that Jiwon had no intention of helping her and was happy to let her die despite the fact that she had saved her was when she transferred herself over to Jiwon. That would explain how Jiwon, who clearly couldn't swim, was then able to get to safety and how she ended up being such a strong swimmer as seen throughout the film with her trips to the pool. Had Su-In not possessed Jiwon the likelihood is they both would have drowned.

The spirit of Jiwon remained silent until Eun-Ju's sister and her two friends, who we see at the beginning of the film, perform a seance and awaken her spirit. The first person Jiwon targets is Eun-Ju, the girl who stood on the rocks and smiled as she watched Jiwon drowning and struggling for help. Through the flashbacks in the film we see Eun-ju and Su-in in a toilet cubicle, Eun-ju says 'Look, you've gotta do this for me!' and Jiwon comes in and interrupts them. Later on in another flashback we see Jiwon saying to Su-in 'If you do this, I'll be your friend forever,' which I believe is referring to the entrance exam that Eun-ju needs to pass to get a place in college. So when Su-in and Jiwon are both in need of help at the lake Eun-ju chooses to watch and not do anything as Jiwon and Su-in are the only two people with any solid proof that she did not sit the exam. I also believe she was very jealous of Jiwon for being the leader of the group so that factored into her decision aswell. But when Jiwon's spirit comes back the first person she wants revenge on is obviously Eun-ju, who she realised wanted her dead.

Now somewhere in between everything happening Jiwon's spirit makes its way to Jiwon's mother, learning in the end that her mother was an alcoholic who was still grieving for her passed over father means it was probably easy for her spirit to take possession of her, probably the night that Eun-ju was killed. From that point on we see the mother (Jiwon) trying desperately to keep Jiwon (spirit of Su-in) at home and trying to make sure that she is healthy, all in order to make sure she can transfer herself into a healthy body.

The other two girls who made up the group that Jiwon led back in high school we don't really learn too much about. In Jiwon's eyes they had to die because they did not do anything to help her, even though one of them was helping the other through an asthma attack they still stood there in the first few moments without doing anything.

The climax of the film see's Jiwon's mother reveal herself to Jiwon (Su-in) who finally realises what has happened. In order to stop Jiwon from transferring back into her own body, Su-in cuts her wrist in an attempt to kill herself. Despite the fact that she survives the suicide attempt, my guess is Jiwon did not transfer back into her own body because she thought it was not strong enough or would die.

There are a few different ways to interpret the ending. It's possible that when the love interest/friend of Jiwon arrived at the home to find her body and call an ambulance that Jiwon's spirit managed to latch itself into him. His words at the hospital about 'Never leaving you alone again' could be a hint to the fact that he is now in fact, Jiwon, but it could also be perfectly innocent and just a man expressing his love.

It's also possible that the spirit of Jiwon has now entered Su-in's mother, she's weak and grieving for her daughter so an easy target for a spirit to possess. But the reaction of her mother, when she see's Jiwon/Su-in walking away at the market could just be that of an angry mother who is after revenge upon learning what really happened to her daughter at the lake.

The third option would be that Jiwon's spirit was sent away by Su-in's act of attempted suicide. I think this would have been the best ending the film could have had. It would have been an ultimate triumph over evil if you like, Su-in sacrificing her new life in order to make sure Jiwon does not come back again.

I suppose though that an ambiguous ending really leaves it up to the viewer to decide which end they would prefer. And of course it was probably ended that way with a view to making a sequel or two out of but evidently that did not happen, which makes me happy in a way as I think any sequel would have been pretty boring to be honest.

So yeah, overall I thought it was a decent enough film, not the best Asian flick I have seen but definitely not the worst. It was easy enough to keep pace with what was going on and the twist at the end wasn't over complicated like in some of the movies I have watched and still haven't managed to get my head around. But there we go, I have rambled on for far too long on my first IMDB post.