Despite all evidence to the contrary, Bong Man-dae's “Cinderella” isn't a South Korea adaptation of the beloved fairy-tale involving a young woman rising from rags to riches to marry the man of her dreams to spite her jealous stepmom and stepsisters. Rather, his entry bearing this title is a somewhat flawed but wholly enjoyable slice of genre fare that delivers a strong message on the nature of South Koreans' obsession for beauty alongside some solid scares.
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Preparing to undergo surgery, Suk-yung, (Jeon So-min) tries not to let her fear stop her from going through with it, despite surgeon Yoon-hee, (To Ji-won) trying to calm them. When her friend Hyun-su, (Shin Se-kyeong) tries to gather her other friends Sung-aum, (Yu Da-in) and Mae-wong, (Ahn Ah-yung) that also had work done at the office, for a birthday party, they suddenly start behaving weirdly and begin to carve themselves according to the surgery performed on them. Convinced it has something to do with her mother, she confronts her about it only to have a terrifying secret revealed to her in the process. Realizing that all of the events in the past as well as what's happening to her friends are related to this secret, she races to solve it before more friends are injured.
There are some good stuff to “Cinderella” from time-to-time. One of the best features is that when it starts to get going, there are some great plays on the nature of beauty. With each of the girls shown to be vain about their appearance in order to fit into accepted society going through the unnecessary surgery with Yoon-hee, this one enhances the idea that those who decide to get surgery are the ones who get attacked. One of the best here is the rather fun and entertaining birthday party scenes, which have some creepy images included. This ranges from the lit birthday-cake moving through the darkened room to the rather bizarre freak-outs when the power goes out, which is a pretty entertaining scene. Coupled with the different visions in the mirrors featuring the distorted face, either with severe scalpel marks or burn wounds is an overall great scene. Another really fun scene is the fantastic scene in art class, which starts with the hand appearing in the paint before dragging the victim head-first into it, only when returning to it later, showing no signs of anything having happened. With that comes the enjoyable film-long plus here in the kills, which are pretty graphic and brutal.
Moreover, once it becomes quite clear what's happening, “Cinderella” picks up considerably. The backstory is quite important as it helps to identify the causes of what's going on, with two great parts that come from it. Firstly is the awesome twist that's revealed, which isn't seen coming and is definitely something that comes as a shock but also highlights Yoon-hee's obsession with plastic surgery towards Hyun-su's friends as well being a rather inventive way of finding out about it. The need for hiding the secret from others with the work she does is a fine way of showing the obsession needed to carry it off, while also showing off the grisly underside of the desire for physical perfection. This ties nicely into the fun attack scenes where the victims are tortured based on the surgery performed, placing the theme of their misguided quest for beauty squarely at the forefront for a rather interesting storyline.
There are a couple of problems with “Cinderella”. One of the film's biggest flaws is that this makes utterly no sense at all. From the revelation angle that's done at the very end that's just so confusingly done that nothing here is given anything close to a definitive answer, to the film's incessant problem of skipping around in time so much that there's hardly any way of knowing where anyone is at in a certain point in time. This becomes all the more frustrating without giving clear answers as it goes on. The movie gradually gets irritating since it goes from the present time to the flashback that explains everything to see what happened with the friends without any change to explain that it's skipping around in time. It all looks the same, to the wardrobe to the outfits and appearance as well, and this just ends up not really doing “Cinderella” any favors in clarifying issues at all. The fact that the film just sort of ends without really doing anything else is a big part of that. This one doesn't have a real clear-cut way of ending, just featuring scenes which make it impossible to tell what's going on. The last flaw is that there's not a whole lot in the middle that are really enjoyable, which manages to come across so dull they rarely match up with any kind of excitement or momentum.
While “Cinderella” isn't that bad overall, there are enough good points and bad ones to make this film an even washout with an overall mediocre feel. It's pretty much only there for the hardcore Asian fanatics or those who might find this story interesting.
