Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #27200 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-11-13
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.77:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, PAL
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 92 minutes

Synopsis
Directed with a sure hand by Woo-Cheol Lee, this complex and suspenseful Korean horror thriller tells the story of Mi-ju, a virtuoso cellist who survives a brutal car accident and decides to spend more time with her family, becoming a music teacher. But just when her life seems to be in order, a series of eerie and alarming events--involving her mute daughter, a creepy new housekeeper, and a dangerously obsessed former student--makes it clear that all is not well.

Customer Reviews

It's a good film if you compare it to the others
The cover of this DVD is very appealing but not so much the film. "Cello" is another entry into the Asian horror genre; the South Korean Cello tries to distance itself from the pack by focusing more on the story than predictable scares. Unfortunately,this only half-works. We are treated to a rich drama involving a former cellist-turned-music instructor, her family, her tragic past and her seemingly slipping sanity, but the scares are almost non-existent.

Mi-Ju is a part-time music professor with a tragic past. When she was younger, she was an up-and-coming cellist, until she was in a car accident with her rival/best friend, Tae-yeon. After Tae-yeon died, Mi-Ju gave up playing the cello and decided just to teach. One day, one of her students threatens her after receiving a bad grade and so begins Mi-Ju's problems. She is sent a mysterious cassette tape that contains a haunting cello duet that dredges up some painful memories of Tae-yeon and almost causes her to get into a car accident. She is distant from her loving family which includes her two daughters, husband and sister-in-law. Her older daughter is mentally disabled and mute, but falls in love with a cello she spies in a window. Mi-Ju buys it for her and begins to teach her how to play it. Meanwhile, a new maid moves into the house. She is creepy as hell and is also mute. It seems as though her family was killed in a car crash and she tried to commit suicide numerous times, once by swallowing acid. No more vocal cords there! Anyways, things start to get creepy slowly but surely...the family's golden lab, Sunny, begins barking all the time until one morning he is found dead. Mi-Ju starts seeing things, her daughter begins playing that haunting song on the cello, the sister-in-law goes crazy after her fiance breaks up with her and "accidents" befall the household

I found this different than most typical Asian horror films. The story is much more rich, with well-developed characters but it doesn't focus much on typical Ju-On or Ringu-type scares. The terror doesn't really begin until the last 20 minutes of the film, giving only glimpses of what or who is terrorizing Mi-Ju and her family. Like most Asian films, it does focus on building tension through the atmosphere. The atmosphere is nicely complemented by the gorgeous cinematography and the soundtrack (heavy on the use of the cello, of course). This is a slow film, but if you can live without the wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am speed of most films today, I recommend Cello. Some claim the film is slow and redundant, but unlike most films where repetitiveness is a time-filler, the repeating themes throughout Cello actually stand for something; in this case, the nightmare that Mi-Ju relives over and over through the different tragedies she suffers. This theme also plays flawlessly into the twist ending.

Cello does have its flaws and I wouldn't be so quick to add it to my collection, but it is definitely worth your time if you appreciate this type of cinema.

Meh
This film is a slow burner. A really slow burner. I have a lot of patience for these types of films, but I had stopped caring by the end of this.

Has potential but total waste of time
The film was a waste of and hour and ahalf of my time.

Whilst the plot began well and made for an interesting film, it took and bizarre sinister turn that ended SO disappointingly. The end really was stupid and film producers should be banned from making films with such an ending that i wont put what it is just incase you do buy it. I recommend you avoid buying the film. I would not pay money for the film, im glad i only rented it.

If you changed the ending, lost the housekeeper and focused more on the obsessed student and made it a thriller around the obsession it could be a good film but the eerie parts of the film had me thinking what the hell is going on.