INTO THE MIRROR

Only a few days are left before the reopening of the Dreampia shopping center, and an employee is found dead, slit in front of the mirror in one of the bathrooms. The police believe it is a suicide, but another death, this time of a security technician, pushes law enforcement to abandon that hypothesis. Meanwhile, Woo Yeong-min, head of security at the shopping center and former police officer with numerous guilt feelings, meets Lee Ji-hyeon, who reveals to him that the perpetrator of the crimes is her twin sister, who died in mysterious circumstances a few months earlier inside the shopping center... South Korea, land of cinematic gems. The trend that has seen the birth of a vast number of genre films in the land of the Rising Sun, finds in South Korea one of the most prolific and certainly most qualitatively valid countries. Despite the constant of the vengeful ghost now being a mandatory path through which it seems that the good 80% of post-“Ringu” Asian horrors must pass, there are still films that manage to deviate from this path to reach more noble destinations. “Into the Mirror” belongs to this category and, despite having the recurring element of the ghost seeking revenge (fortunately not the usual scarecrow with a white dress and long hair in front of the face), it turns out to be one of the most valid and gripping thriller/horrors of the Eastern new wave. The winning idea behind “Into the Mirror” is the use of the mirror as a gateway to an alternate world and as an element of reflection on the theme of the double. The mirrors, which are the true protagonists of the film, since the director manages to place them in almost every shot, do not simply reflect our image, but another self, a being independent of ourselves that lives its own life in another world that develops behind the mirror; for this reason, death does not kill the reflection, the other self, but can nourish its life, making it unique. Symbol and at the same time negation of the reflected double is the character of Lee Ji-hyeon, twin sister and therefore further double of the vengeful victim Lee Jeong-hyeon, a fragile character with a past in a mental hygiene center. The confinement of Lee Ji-hyeon and her subsequent release after the death of Lee Jeong-hyeon do nothing but symbolize the relationship of exclusivity that is created between the different selves: Lee Ji-hyeon is locked in a hospital, leaving Lee Jeong-hyeon the freedom to live; Lee Jeong-hyeon dies and Lee Ji-hyeon is considered cured and free to go, thus replacing the role of Lee Jeong-hyeon and bringing order to the two worlds (outside and inside the mirror) which thus have a “Lee” for each one. The universe created by Sung-ho Kim in his film is complex, and the philosophy hidden behind the simple story told in the film is much less banal than the simple thriller stitched as an exoskeleton on “Into the Mirror”; in fact, what is less convincing about the film is the turn from police thriller that the film takes in the central/final part, which, in addition to slowing down its pace, brings it close, in terms of narrative solutions, to famous Hollywood paranormal thrillers such as “The Others” and “The Sixth Sense”; but in the end, it matters little, since the film manages to be a singular and pleasantly ambiguous creature, capable of standing out prominently above most of the genre films that come to us from the East. The direction of Sung-ho Kim is careful and varied, very appreciable when creating ambiguous games of reflections with the mirrors and supported by a valid and attentive photography. Quite good are also the actors and discreet the gore department. At least two sequences are from the anthology: the initial murder and the twist that closes the film. A must-see for both lovers of Eastern horror cinema and its detractors.