Nightmare (2000 film)

Plot

A clique of six friends separate after their graduation from college: Hye-jin continues to pursue her tertiary education, Seon-ae moves to the United States, Jung-wook works as a lawyer, Se-hun opens an art studio while preparing for his directorial debut, Mi-ryeong becomes an actress, and Hyun-jun is stuck as a construction worker due to the cast on his leg. Seon-ae returns home and tells Hye-jin and Se-hun about the deceased Kyung-ah pursuing her. Back when they were in college, the clique decided to include a new member, Eun-ju, whom Hye-jin befriended at a botanical garden. Hyun-jun fell in love with her at first sight, much to the disappointment of Seon-ae, who was in love with him. Seon-ae made Eun-ju a scapegoat for the misfortunes that the clique experienced and correctly deduced her as Kyung-ah, a girl from Seon-ae and Hye-jin's past who became an outcast for apparently causing problems around her, including the death of Hye-jin's father. Eun-ju apparently committed suicide by jumping from a building after Hye-jin rejected her.

While having sex with a prostitute, Se-hun is killed by having his eye gouged out and telephone booth glass crushing him. Down on luck, Hyun-jun blackmails Jung-wook into becoming his lawyer by threatening him with a video that could potentially scandalize him and Mi-ryeong, with whom he still maintains a relationship despite his marriage. Hyun-jun is later killed inside Se-hun's studio. Jung-wook and Mi-ryeong attempt to take the video tape, but Seon-ae has already gotten it. After dumping Jung-wook, Mi-ryeong is found dead in the shower of her bathroom.

Jung-wook tells Hye-jin that Seon-ae went to the United States to seek mental treatment, not education. Seon-ae visits Hye-jin several times to seek solace from Kyung-ah's terrors. Hye-jin takes Hyun-jun's video tape and learns that Kyung-ah was killed when she fell while attempting to strangle Jung-wook after Hye-jin rejected her, not because of suicide. Jung-wook appears and chases Seon-ae to the building where they disposed of Kyung-ah's body. He tells Hye-jin that he is the one who killed all of their friends to keep them from revealing the truth. Before he can kill them, Seon-ae impales him with a metal rod, killing him.

Some time later, Seon-ae pays visit to Hye-jin's apartment. Hye-jin tells her that they should forget everything, but Seon-ae speaks as if she is not herself. The camera turns to reveal Kyung-ah slowly slitting Seon-ae while saying "once Seon-ae is dead, we (Kyung-ah and Hye-jin) can be together...".

Cast

DVD problems

Tartan Video's Region 1 release of the film has a vertically stretched image, (the 1.85:1 film is presented in 1.74:1) which causes noticeable distortion of angles, as well as making everything appear thinner than it should.

Remake

A Chinese remake of the film, titled Bunshinsaba 2 (筆仙Ⅱ, Bǐxiān II), also directed by Ahn Byeong-ki, was released on July 16, 2013, as part of a trilogy of the Mandarin-language films directed by Ahn. The title refers to the director's 2004 Korean film, Bunshinsaba, though none of the films in the trilogy bear any resemblance to it. It starred Xin Zhilei, Park Han-byul, Zhang Haoran, Sienna Li, Sun Shaolong, Yang Fan, and Zhang Tingting. It is almost a shot-for-shot remake, aside from the setting, language, and actor changes, a few details (Hyun-jun previously played baseball, whereas his Chinese counterpart, Hongrui, played tennis), and an additional scene that pays homage to the 2004 film Bunshinsaba.