This Geek in Netflix: White
Dear readers, you may have noticed a several week absence on the part of your author.
By your author, I mean me. Please save yourself some confusion. I know dealing with second person point of view can be a bit disorienting at times, but try to keep up.
Trust me when I say that it was absolutely necessary to take those few weeks to floss my Japanese turtle. Which is much kinkier than it sound, believe me—I’m a professional.
In celebration of my long-awaited(ish?) return, I’ve decided to gift myself with the 2011 Korean flick, White: The Melody of the Curse, AKA: White: Melody of the Curse, AKA: White: Curse of the Melody, AKA: White: Curse Melody of the.
WTMOTC is about a not-so-much-loved K-Pop all-girl group, Pink Dolls, that discovers a VHS tape in an old studio that has a song and dance number that suddenly catapults them into fame. Tragically, the tape comes with a curse: the angry white-haired ghost of a former pop performer set on the destruction of any one who attempts to take the lead role in the song.
I know, I know—it’s amazing that I kept myself away from it from so long, especially given my love of K-Pop. But I did manage to finally sit down and learn to love the four girls of Pink Dolls.
Okay, that was a lie: three of them were total cunts. Yeah, you heard me. Jenny, A-rang, and Shin-ji kept picking on the poor back-up dancer, Eun-ju, who was such a sweet heart. And I heard from Sun-ye that A-rang even switched Eun-ju’s shampoo for a name-brand!! WHO DOES THAT?!!
Fortunately for Eun-ju, between over-imbibing fluids, what appeared to be self-impalement, and a tragic accident involving a crane, those little show stealers are soon put out of business.
This movie started off as one of those underdog-rises-to-fame flicks. Everything was in place: the lead female on her way out the door due to age, the three other group members biting at her heels to leave, the pathetic loss at a competition to another girl group, and the miraculous discovery of the song “White” that would save the band.
It’s almost as if one writer turned in a screenplay to his partner who, as a practical joke, rewrote it as a horror flick. Or maybe I’m just projecting my own love for team-killing onto the writing world.
The imagery in the film was often intense and, as the story began to reveal itself, the recurring themes began to make more sense and added to the film’s artistry. Sure, a few parts of it were very much the standard gore that I see way too often in Japanese flicks like Tokyo Gore Police, but even with those hiccups, it was still fun.
Of course I have a soft spot for those cheesy dance movies (Step Up, Center Stage, Take the Lead, etc. embarrassed etc.), so combine anything along those lines with a tragic ghost story and people running around shrieking their little K-Pop heads off, and you’ve got a perfect winner for my late night consumption.
No, not that kind of consumption. RedTube and I will be discussing that after I wrap up with Netflix.
If you find yourself craving a late night snack, that special blend of two delightful worlds, start buffering White: The Curse of the Melody of the Melody of the Curse on Netflix on Demand.
