First of all I must say that I am puzzled about the statement on the DVD cover; 'genuinely creepy' and 'ghostly disturbing, violent and bloody' The Red Shoes is one of the year's must-see horror films'. I just wonder if I actually watched the same movie as whomever had written that.The story is about a pair of haunted red shoes - yeah, exactly. Enough said! The storyline was a tad too silly for me and the entire movie was just lacking a proper red line throughout the entire storyline.The movie wasn't spooky or scary, and it managed to stay afloat and pass as semi-watchable because of the acting performances put on by the cast. But the performances couldn't really manage to lift up the movie because the story was lacking the all-important spice. And as such, this movie was a below average experience.South Korea do manage to put some really great horror movies out there, but "The Red Shoes" (aka "Bunhongsin") just wasn't one such occurrence.

"The Red Shoes" is an entertaining and definitely fun Asian ghost film.**SPOILERS**Moving into a new apartment, Sun-jae, (Kim Hye-soo) and her daughter Tae-su, (Park Yeon-ah) try to move on with their lives following her painful divorce. When she suffers a series of personal tragedies, she manages to find a pair of red shoes and takes them home, experiencing a slight reversal of fortune while having them. Using them, she manages to meet In-cheol, (Kim Sung-su) who is helping her start over with her new career, but a vicious jealous streak emerges with everyone who she feels is attempting to steal away the shoes. When it soon becomes apparent that some outside force is killing off those who are involved with her, she realizes the deadly curse attached to them and tries to find a way of keeping her loved ones from being part of the tragedies.The Good News: This was an enjoyable and entertaining ghost entry. One of the best parts is that, like most of the normal Asian ghost films, this one is simply filled with really striking visuals during the course of the film. Some, including the opening attack where a woman is stalked through a gigantic walkway inside a train station, only to be confronted by a supernatural force that moves over the ground, into her shoes and then begins screaming, pulling back to reveal that the amount of skin covered by the floating supernatural force has been bloodily removed, as well as other scenes are just outstanding, and quite suspenseful at times. Another brilliant scene occurs on the roof of the hospital, where, while discussing what's happening, they look up to notice the picture of the person haunting them and are then doused in blood raining down like snowflake, which is made apparent to them after-the-fact. Other big scenes, such as the nightmare in the bedroom where the ceiling opens up and pulls her into it, then rains down gallons-upon-gallons of blood on her or the simply chilling twist-ending that is extremely well-thought-out and makes for some fun times, are some more great examples. Perhaps, though, one of the best features here is the rather great amount of time spent on making the shoes to be something worthwhile, due to the obsessive behavior exhibited just to own them. The opening scene again shows this trait, as does the attitude and behavior of the daughter once she takes them home, as well as the different ways people react when they're on, from the murdered friend to passerby on the street and more, the film does a great job at building up a solid mystery as to what the shoes will drive a person to do. That they manage to keep reappearing, despite being visibly thrown away on numerous occasions, shows the power they have, and that is a simply effective tool no matter what. This one also manages to have an effective back-story in here that spells out the convoluted but still understandable premise with a great deal of clarity, which is a strong plus when considering these kinds of films but is also quite fun as well with a fantastic duel murder thrown in. That brings up the last plus, the rather strong gore on display. There's the aforementioned legs being lopped off, an eyeball cut out, a shoe heel stabbed in the eye, a broken glass shard slicing the legs off and two victims, at once, being hung-up on a supernaturally-powered noose. These here are what make the film work.The Bad News: There wasn't much wrong with this one. A pretty big flaw in here is the simply large amount of time spent on the adultery angle. There's a rather lengthy scene early on of her running around town and then stumbling upon the act, which is fine, but the fact that this plot point continues to become relevant in the middle of the film is quite troublesome. It had already been dealt with beforehand with the various people all commentating on the differences she had experienced since moving on, yet to keep bringing it up when there's very little cause to do so is simply weird and confusing. Another problematic point is the attitude of the daughter, who's constant whining and complaining about the shoes got tiresome. They're screaming matches, one of which turns into a brawl, to regain custody of the shoes is certainly not that fun due to the annoying habit of the daughter, and was certainly a case where discipline was needed. The last flaw is the slow middle part, where the story is given some legs and as such there isn't much in the way of excitement during these scenes, although that's to be expected in an Asian ghost film, and isn't detrimental. These here are the film's problems.The Final Verdict: A strong entry in the genre, not entirely without flaws but still with such impressive positive points to hold the bad-parts down. Strongly recommended for fans of these films or of Asian cinema in general, as well as the curious, while the only ones who won't take to it are non-Asian fans.Rated R: Graphic Violence and Language

In 1944, rivals for a man's affections, Keiko and Oki, ends tragically with a pair of pink ballerina shoes as a sort of prize for the victor through a tragic act of violence. 60 years later, the pink shoes are found by an embittered wife, Sun-jae(Hye-su Kim)who happened upon her husband having sex with another woman, on a subway train(..in the opening of this movie a girl removes the shoes from the hands of another dying horribly when her feet were somehow removed from her legs!). Moving to a rather modest, depressing flat, with daughter Tae-soo(Yeon-ah Park)in tow, Sun-jae possibly finds a new love with a kind, handsome, charming young architect, In-cheol(Seong-su Kim) constructing a new building she plans to work in. But, the shoes have such an allure so volatile that Sun-jae finds herself at odds with her own daughter over them..and there's a history(..and, especially baggage)that follows them which will truly cause nightmarish complications Sun-jae could never possibly imagine.Like a lot of these kinds of films, there's a complete backstory behind the shoes. They symbolize the tragic repercussions of adultery which will ultimately parallel Sun-jae's own story. But, more importantly, the director establishes, subtly, the results in taking what isn't yours. In this horror tale, when one takes the pink shoes from another they literally lose the feet they wear them on. This correlates with a mistress taking a husband from a wife. In the back story, it's shown that through treacherous Oki's removal of the shoes/husband from Keiko, she prospers and succeeds, but ultimately pays the price for her thievery. Circa 2004, the same goes for how the husband allows his mistress to wear Sun-jae's shoes while making love. But, there's another interesting twist that occurs between Tae-soo and Sun-jae regarding the fulfilling of roles with the shoes as a supernatural catalyst. This is a downer of a movie, I must tell you. We see how the tragedies of the past come back to haunt characters in the present. The ending, regarding the fates of those at the hands of Sun-jae, motivated by *another*, certainly left me stunned. Perhaps, it'll have the same effect with you.It seems that this film is interpreted by people differently, so I could be absolutely wrong with my assessment with this film. Some believe that Sun-jae is one of many characters. These theories give me a head ache, so see for yourself.

The Red Shoes (Which are pink, by the way) is an example of how exaggerating horror films can reach nowadays WARNING: SPOILERS Now, the story started off with a woman called Sun-jae, who caught her hubby having sex with another woman aka an affair. so she grabbed her daughter and they moved out of the house to stay in an apartment. There, she started with the renovation of her eye clinic BLAHBLAHBLAH...not very important. by the way, she fell in love with the architect. Now, the horror starts when she stumbled upon a pair of pretty cool looking high heel shoes. And much to her dismay, everyone (Ok, more like only women) who sees the shoes will be obsessed with it First, it was her daughter. Ahhh...then her friend Mi-hee. Mi-Hee stole the shoes and died in one of the most gruesome ways ever-TERRIFIC! So, my point of views of this film: Has couple of nice chilling moments like the part where she sees this long hair woman in the elevator. VEry cool! Some twists here and there though some of the twists were lame. Like the fact that only whoever who STEALS the shoes will be killed Which means that if you steal the shoes from a particular person, you will die and not that particular person. The ending twist about Sun-Jae having split personality is cool but weird too. Overall, this is an excellent an elegant horror film with loads of chilling scenes but lack an original story. I would recommend this to you