Unborn But Forgotten 2002 Tartan Video   Buy It Now

A pregnant woman lies in her bathtub, soaking, when a shadowy figure moves silently into her front door and across the main room of her apartment. Through the open door to the bathroom the figure moves and soon his hands are on the bathing woman...a struggle...a fight. Within moments the woman lies motionless on the floor of her apartment, the struggle over...the flashback ends and we fade into the present.

Another woman lies on her bed; in obvious pain and discomfort she clutches at her belly while moans and cries of anguish escape her lips. Before our eyes her belly swells from the flat stomach of a fit woman to the round curve of a late stage pregnancy...within moments she is dead. On an autopsy table it is learned that this woman’s body was ready to give birth; her uterus expanded so quickly that it crushed her internal organs. But the odd thing is this: she was never pregnant, and no sign of a fetus is present.

Do these two events separated by an unknown amount of time coincide with one another? Who can be certain? But what is certain is that the second event is not an isolated case; other women have died in the same manner. The police have assigned a detective to look into the deaths and, as is typical in times of tragedy, a journalist is following close behind. She has been assigned to do a story on the very officer who is now looking into these strange fatalities and due to her close proximity to the investigation, it isn’t long before another death occurs...this time on camera.

No external wounds...a sudden swelling of the abdomen typical of pregnancy...no sign thereof...and a fatal end result. All the details are the same in every case, but the most important detail follows soon after through the interrogation of the women’s friends and family. It seems that each of the victims visited the same website before their demise; and each of the victims saw their own deaths soon after. For the reporter and the detective, this is startling and unsettling news. For you and me, this is nothing new at all...

In the wake of America’s discovery of a little movie from Japan called Ringu, a veritable onslaught of Japanese horror began to fly across the pacific in an attack that the American public was completely unprepared for. It’s target? Our market for horror films. Suddenly, if it wasn’t Japanese (or at the VERY least Korean or Chinese) it wasn’t good. Shallow horror fans (who amazingly enough, were unaware of Ringu themselves for a good three years while more serious horror fanatics were already abuzz over the films impact overseas) suddenly began chanting the mantra of “American horror is boring and stale”. Give us more J-horror they cried. Bring us something we haven’t seen before they pleaded.

And it came...in droves. Like tiny circular kamikaze pilots these DVDs began slamming into store shelves and laying waste to the titles which sat there before them. These shallow fans rejoiced! They felt powerful in their elite status at knowing that these new Japanese and Asian horror titles were SO much more superior to our paltry American fare...in fact, they were SO drunk on this power that they have become intoxicated beyond rational thought. You see, it is now these same people who said “All American horror is the SAME...ugg...it is without soul!!” who are currently noticing titles like Unborn But Forgotten and screaming “This one is a Ringu RIPOFF...all this damn Asian horror is exactly the same!”.

The fact of the matter is that yes...films like (I apologize for the American titles on these, but it makes them more identifiable to the average Hollywood Video renter) Unborn But Forgotten, Pulse, Phone and others are all cannibalisms of one another! So now these fair-weather fans beat each and every new import until it is back and blue because they are expecting a revolution every time a new DVD from overseas slides into their forty dollar Coby DVD player from Walmart. To them a question from myself...

You do realize that Halloween, Friday The 13th, Nightmare On Elm Street and the other slasher films that defined the United States last great dominance of horror are all cannibalisms of each other as well right?

You see, when it comes to a film like Unborn But Forgotten, there is nothing new. In fact, it is SO near to some other films that we feel a sense of betrayal...but I ask why. This film is done very, very well and should be able to stand on its own merits instead of being judged by how closely its successes resemble those of other films we just happened to see first.

As I said several paragraphs back...Unborn But Forgotten is “nothing new at all”, but you know what else? It is a good movie. In fact it is one of the better Korean horror tales I have ever seen!

As the website named The White Room continues to draw in new victims, such as our reporter, the mystery begins to unravel. But what it is unraveling goes well beyond the simple face value of this film (which is of course “a curse from a vengeful spirit”...oops did I give this and every other Asian horror film away? Sorry!), into a deeper and more socially relevant topic...the woman’s place in our world.

The topics touched on (although never fully tackled) in Unborn But Forgotten include women in the workplace and their struggle to achieve recognition in a male workplace, a woman’s right to choose what is best for her and her body, the level of a woman’s obligations and obedience to her partner, and the varying levels of punishment for impropriety when committed by a woman rather then a man. I am no feminist and am certainly no activist, but it was pleasing to see such things put on display and questioned in a horror film from a part of the world where there is most ASSUREDLY a schism between the treatment of the sexes and their assigned roles in society.

Beyond the subject matter, be it the straightforward plot or the slightly subversive social commentary, lies several other merits to substantiate Unborn But Forgotten as a quality horror film. Quality cinematography, inventive editing, marked performances and a certain seriousness of the subject matter all add to this film’s attraction. It is refreshing to see a production crew take pride in their work even if they themselves know that it may not be revolutionarily original.

As in the vast majority of Asian ghost tales, this Korean film has little in the way of blood, guts and gore and relies much more heavily on creepy atmosphere, spine-tingling visuals and more than a few “shock you out of your seat” moments. Complete trauma junkies may want a little something more in their horror, but for anyone with an understanding of the genre, this film will suit them just fine.

There is not a lot in the way of extra features attached to this disc; actually nothing more than an on-the-set featurette, a couple of interviews and some trailers. I would have liked a commentary...something to dig a little deeper into the social issues which are explored. As it is the extra features are really not worth a whole lot; even the behind-the-scenes is just some video camera footage of the actors acting...no sound, no narration, and no titles to show you what you are witnessing. Oh well, not the end of the world I suppose.

I hope that Tartan continues to deliver the sort of films that they have been, regardless of the full “originality” of each one. There is a lot to be said of quality over flash, and Tartan seems to be fairly versed in recognizing it. Not that there hasn’t been a dud or two amongst their releases, but I can assure you that Hayanbang (the original Korean title for Unborn But Forgotten) is not one of them. And while is isn’t the most polished or flamboyant of the Asian horror wave...it is certainly worth a look!

-aaron-