PRINCESS AURORA

Directed by Bang Eun-jin
Written by Bang Eun-jin, Kim Chang-rae & Seo Min-hee
Cast: Uhm Jung-hwa, Moon Seong-geun, Kwon O-joong, Choi Jong-won, Hyeon Yeong, Kim Yong-geon & Kim Ik-tae

2005/106 mins/Color/DTS
2.35:1 anamorphic/Korean/South Korea/NTSC Region 3

Review from the Cinema Service DVD

In a shopping mall, a beautifully strange woman witness a mother lecturing and hitting her daughter. A few minutes later, the mother goes to the restroom, asking her daughter to stop crying and clean herself, while she goes to the stall. The unindentified woman, takes care of the little girl and have her go outside. But she soon returns and violently murder the mother by stabbing her multiple times.

Detectives Oh (Moon Seong-geun) and Jung (Kwon O-joong) are put on the case of the restroom murder. Clues are soon pilling up as with each subsequent victim they find a Princess Aurora sticker around the murder. Now there's no doubt that all these killings are connected.

Jung Soon-jung (the dropdead gorgeous Uhm Jung-hwa), was a mother once... now she tries to make it through the days living with the agony and sadness of the lost of her daughter. What better way there is then killing people... people who are directly responsable for such a tragic event.

This revenge flick could have been much more but the poorly written script, uninvolving story and the fact that its clearly 15 minutes too long won't propel PRINCESS AURORA in the same league as SYMPATHY FOR LADY VENGEANCE. Uhm Jung-hwa gives a great performance as the twisted and loving mother but the other characters are simply not interesting. Like most South Korean movies release these days, PRINCESS AURORA looks amazingly stunning. But this is yet another case of visuals over substance. This ain't a bad movie but with such an incredible beginning I felt letdown by the rest.

PRINCESS AURORA was the directorial debut of accomplished actress Bang Eun-Jin, who've we seen in ADDRESS UNKNOWN, PUSH! PUSH! and 3001, 3002. With a budget of 3.3 Billion Won, the movie was release in South Korea on October 27, 2005.

Cinema Service have release PRINCESS AURORA on a 2 disc limited to 2000 copies edition. The film is presented in its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio and it is anamorphic. As mentioned above, the film looks amazing. The image looks terrific with rich, vibrant and perfectly saturated colors. We get the choice of either a DTS or 5.1 Dolby Digital track. Both of them are in Korean and sound simply stunning with loud pounding bass, crisp and clear and perfectly mixed channel separation. Without a doubt, there is simply no defect to this transfer. Optional Korean and English subtitles are available for the movie. The first disc also features two commentary tracks which are unfortunately only in Korean and without any subtitles.

The second disc starts with a 35 minutes 'Making-Of' documentary that takes us behind-the-scenes and features interviews witht the cast and crew. Next is a 10 minutes interview with the main cast. Its followed by a 10 minutes interview with director Bang Eun-jin. We also get a 13 minutes short film from the director. There's an interview with the musical composer and another one with the fx director which takes a look at all the color correction made through the film. There's also another interview, this time with the creator of the PRINCESS AURORA manga character. We get a music video which is filled with spoilers from the movie so please beware before watching this if you haven't seen the film. And finally we get the teaser, theatrical trailer and tv spot. As with most Korean DVD edition, this one doesn't feature any English subtitles which is a shame.

The main feature is separated in 15 chapters. Both disc features superbly designed animated menus with music. We also get a nice 8 page booklet which unfold itself like a poster and 2 page of PRINCESS AURORA for you to use on your own victims. The keep case itself comes in a superbly designed case. This is yet another amazing Korean edition.

( Original title: Orora Gong-joo )

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Review by Kim Dubuisson. All Right Reserved. 2006. ©

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