Zombos Says: Very Good
Of all the places to die, why choose school?
Ki-hyeong Park’s Whispering Corridors (Yeogo Goedam) balances commentary on the psychological and physical abuse found in South Korean girls’ schools, sympathy for a lost spirit dwelling equally in daylight and black of night, and a symbolic use of pouring blood to tell a story of loss, brief redemption, and continued loss.
It opens with the ghost prowling school grounds at night, seeking vengeance on a teacher who mistreated her. The discovery of the teacher’s hanging body the next day is seen first in the surprised face of the student who finds it, then next from behind her as she views it, but her head blocks our view. Finally, a step to her left and we see the entire body in the farground with the back of the student in the foreground, side by side. Other student’s reactions are then shown in still shots as they come upon the body.
Muted, somber colors inside and out lend starkness to the secrecy unfolding to discovery in the school, toned by the callous mistreatment of the students and the teachers’ indifference to their emotional needs. Male teachers in the school are chauvinistic and condenscending, and become violent with little provocation. Mr. Oh (Mad Dog, as the students call him), with his stick and sarcastic temperament, reminded me of a math teacher I suffered through one semester in grade school. He also carried a stick and whacked us on the head with it at little provocation. It is in this restrictive, competitive, and individuality-stifling environment the ghost haunts day and night: by day, as one of the students blending into class for years without any teacher realizing she’s hung around year after year, and by night as a vengeance spirit, murdering those teachers who mistreated her or mistreat other girls.
It isn’t impossible for a student to attend classes for years and not be noticed: I sat in two college classes, back to back, with the same boring professor and he didn’t remember my name or that I had taken another class with him the previous semester. And I sat in the second row, directly in front of him all that time. Park is simply emphasizing how teachers are more involved with keeping authority and class order instead of attending to students’ individual needs.
The ghost just wants to be normal, to relive her classroom life again and again in hopes of getting it right. She doesn’t want to harm anyone, but vindictive and sadistic teachers keep mistreating the students, bringing on her vengeance-side. While it appears only three times, each occurrence is heralded by supernatural events, leading to a bloody attack, but without gore. Blood isn’t used for shock value, especially at the end when a classroom becomes inundated with it, but to convey the flow of life can be either positive or negative, given the ghost of a chance either way.