Dead Friend
Dead Friend (Ryeong), also known as The Ghost, is a 2004 South Korean horror film. It was written and directed by Kim Tae-gyeong and was his debut feature. It stars Kim Ha-neul as Min Ji-won, Nam Sang-mi as Su-in, Bin (Jeon Hye-bin) as Eun-seo, and Shin Yi as Shin Mi-kyung. Both Kim Ha-neul and Nam Sang-mi previously starred together in Too Beautiful to Lie.
The film centers around Ji-Won, a teenage girl suffering from amnesia, who is being haunted by strange and disturbing visions. Things take a turn for the worst when she discovers her high school friends are being killed off one-by-one by what seems to be a vengeful ghost. It is up to Ji-Won to try to recover her lost memories and find out why the ghost is killing off her friends before it comes looking for her next.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Su-in, completely by accident, got what she wished for - She becomes Ji-won. Unfortunately for her, there were some nasty concequences.
- Break the Haughty: It was quite fun watching the victims' terror just before they were attacked, considering what haughty bitches they were in the past.
- Catapult Nightmare: Practically every time Ji-Won wakes up.
- Creepy Child: EVERY SINGLE KID IN THIS MOVIE!
- The slow chant "Hide well...Your hair might show. Hide well...Your hair might show" was especially creepy.
- Darkness Equals Death: Every death happens on a dark night in a dark room. For an extra kicker, it's usually a stormy night too.
- Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Every character in the film. Possibly intentional? The four main girls were particularly creepy whenever they stood in a row and just stared someone down. This troper thought they were creepier than the ghost!
- Foot Focus: Particular emphasis was put on the ghost's feet and the tracks of dirty water it left wherever it walked.
- Ghostly Goals: The ghost had unfinished business to attend to...but not before killing off most of the film's cast.
- Grand Theft Me
- I Wished You Were Dead: Eun-jung wishes a ghost would take her sister away. Guess what happens not five minutes later?
- Kill the Cutie: Poor Su-in
- Nightmare Sequence
- Ominous Music Box Tune: The movie's theme song.
- Police Are Useless: While reporting a ghost is pretty ridiculous, it's hard not to shake your head when the police officers laugh in Ji-won's face and call her crazy when there are a bunch of random, unexplainable and downright impossible deaths happening around the city.
- Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl
- The Reveal: The ending.
- Vomit Indiscretion Shot: The lovely close up of Eun-seo vomiting buckets and buckets of water.