New Whispering Corridors movie classified as 18+ only?
Update: The appeal was successful. The new rating is 15+ only.
SNSD might have had their horror movie opportunity terminated by MBC recently. But it's no loss for fans of the horror genre because the latest chapter of the Whispering Corridors series, A Blood Pledge will be hitting movie theatres in Korea soon. What's unfortunate though is that Korean youths might not be able to watch it, after the movie was recently slapped with a 18+ rating by the Korea Media Rating Board (KMRB), becoming the first in the series to receive such a rating.
Whispering Corridors 5: A Blood Pledge is about about a group of high school chapel friends, who swear their friendship with blood and promise that they will even die together. After one of the students in the group, Eon Ju commits suicide by jumping to her death, the remaining friends are chased by death as their promise weighs heavily over them. The movie is going to hit movie theatres on 18th June, next week.
The previous 4 chapters in the Whispering Corridors series have never been slapped with a 18+ rating before by the KMRB. The first chapter of Whispering Corridors got a 15+ rating while the 2nd and 3rd, Memento Mori and Wishing Stairs had a 12+ rating. The 4th chapter, Ghost Voice had a 15+ rating, just like the first.
According to KMRB, they ruled that the scene where the group of students meet to promise to die together, might lead to a spate of copycat suicides or otherwise known as the Werther effect in Korea. The ruling comes after South Korea has been battling a rise in people committing suicides in recent years and given an even higher profile, following suicides by actress Choi Jin Shil last year and ex-president, Roh Moo Hyun.
With the Whispering Corridors series targeted at primarily the youth market, the enforcement of the 18+ rating would be a big blow to the box office takings. The production house, Cine 2000 has voiced it's dismay at the rating and will be filing an appeal against the decision although time is fast running out for them.
Don't proceed if you have a weak heart or alone in the dark.
Many thanks to sarangnitr and okchicago for videos.
12 Jun 2009 - 04:28 AM
51. yumiyu | website
Looks interesting~~ looking forward to watching it in the cinema, though! ~<3