marcuscaiazzo This film, like many other Korean powerful films I have seen, no matter what genre the film resides, it's always so heart wrenching and deep, definitely worth the watch if you are similar to me and love films that not only pull at the heart strings but give them a little twist too, It's clear to see where the Korean cinema infatuation begins, these directors are professional romanticists hitting the heart every step of the way. Epic.

Maz Murdoch (asda-man) I wouldn't go expecting anything to do with the original fairytale. I was expecting a Korean horror twist on it like that fantastic, "Hansel & Gretel". I was expecting a vicious stepmother keeping her daughter captive and so on. Actually Cinderella has very loose references to the infamous tale. In fact, I would've scrapped the title altogether and called it something referring to vanity, because that's the theme that is most emphasised in the film.Cinderella is 2/3's of a good film. I found the first 40 minutes or so incredibly difficult to follow thanks to most of the characters looking the same and having very little development. The first 40 minutes don't work with what occurs for the remainder of the film when it finally finds it footing. It's quite tedious and confusing to see these friends getting killed off by a ghost after having plastic surgery for no apparent reason. The whole ghost-killer idea doesn't even really work that effectively until it's loosely developed in the finale. Even characters with no earlier development get killed off and were left wondering why and if we really care!However, the overall feel of the film changed at the first flashback where a pretty huge twist is revealed. It's highly engaging and then allows us to focus on the characters who really care about, the mother and her daughter. In its final moments the film almost becomes dream-like with the past merging with the present, but it remains utterly absorbing, even though it's incredibly difficult to work out what the hell is going on! The ending left me feeling completely bemused and I'd completely lost the plot. However, I did find it incredibly emotional and heart felt, allowing us to feel a great deal of sympathy for the characters, especially the mother.Aside for a few creepy moments, I wouldn't call Cinderella a full-blown horror film. It's more of a dream-like dark drama, thanks to the ghost idea being under-used and under-developed. The frustrating thing about the film is that it's full of fantastic twists and ideas, but explores them in ways which are needlessly confusing! The plot is also messy and is in need of character development, or character reduction.However, Cinderella is worth a watch. It's an engaging and emotional experience and has a heart, which is greatly lacking in modern American horror films. It also has a wonderful score and surprising twists to ensure that you're never bored. It's just a shame that the writing department was as ill conceived as it was. But, perhaps you're a highly intelligent person and can differentiate fantasy from reality and past from present. I for one can not!

slayrrr666 "Cinderella" isn't that bad but could've been much better.**SPOILERS**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 qualm 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 when 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, he races to solve it before more friends are injured.The Good News: There was some good stuff to this one from time-to-time. One of the best features is that, when it starts to get going there's some good scenes. One of the best here is the rather fun and entertaining birthday party scenes, which really don't have a whole lot really wrong. There's some creepy images once it utilizes them, from the image of the lit birthday-cake moving through the darkened room to the rather bizarre freak-outs and the darkened room when the power goes out causing them to also freak-out 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 on showing no signs of anything happening. When that's stumbled upon later, the graphic face-cutting that resulted in the interim makes the scene really stand-out. Other minor scenes, including the ghostly visions at the beginning that may-or-may-not be there, the nightmare with her in the facial mask or also run into quite enjoyable scenes and are definitely pretty enjoyable as a whole. The back-story to this is also really good, with there being two great parts that come from it. Firstly is the awesome twist that's revealed, which is definitely something that isn't seen coming and really shouldn't, to a rather inventive way of finding out about it, it's a really great flashback that manages to hold more significance than initially expected. As well, there's some fun action to be had as well with the exploding car and the race to the hospital, which really help this one out considerably as well. The last plus here is the kills, which are pretty graphic and brutal. There's several faces that are sliced up with knives, a burnt victim, a stabbing in the arm and more, which while it doesn't sound like a lot definitely has it's moments. These here are what work for the film.The Bad News: There was a couple of problems to this one that hold it down somewhat. One of the film's biggest flaws is the fact that the film makes utterly no sense at all. From the revelation to the fact that it's done at the very end of the film, and the big angle where it's just so confusingly done that nothing here is given anything close to a definitive answer. This is due to the film's incessant and irritating 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, since it goes from the present time to the flashback that explains everything to seeing what happened with the friends without any change in doing anything new to explain that it's skipping around in time to do this. It all looks the same, to the wardrobe to the outfits and appearance as well as the technical look of the film, and this just ends up not really doing the film 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 sorting of featuring a series of scenes that pass by without any dialog whatsoever which makes it impossible to tell what's going on, and then the series of events themselves make even less sense. All in all, it's a very problematic issue. The last issue with this one is the fact that there's not a whole lot of scenes in the middle that are really enjoyable. It's just a whole lot of rather slow-going scenes that rarely match up with any kind of excitement or momentum into the film, which manages to make them come across so dull that it makes these scenes even harder to care for. The constant scenes of her working out with her mother, her friends sniping at each other in art class or at the pool, or the seemingly endless scenes of the group talking over what's happening are just a part of this, and they all take this one down.The Final Verdict: Not that bad overall, but there's enough good points and bad ones to make this film an even washout. Pretty much only there for the hardcore Asian fanatics or those who might find this story interesting, while those who are put off by the film's problems should heed caution.Rated UR/R: Graphic Violence and some Language

gila_film After watching 'Cinderella', I feel very deceiving, where this is more melodramatic rather than a shock horror. Yes, there's some appearances of a-long-haired-ghost, but the whole issue monopolizes the screen is the drama about a mother-daughter's relationship that is very resemblance of Hideo Nakata's Dark Water.Hyoon-su (Sin Se-kyeong) is raised by her single mother, a renowned plastic surgeon. She's living a very happy life, since her mother is caring her lovingly. But her life get a darker tone since one of her friend who's done a plastic surgery are found dead. Things get worse since she find a secret basement and her dark past is revealed. since then, her close relationship with her mother will never be the same.The direction from Bong Man-dae has some subtle moments and it has some generic horror atmosphere. The act is never perfectly fits, since this is a horror movie. Peoples are privilege to act surreal. The movie it self somewhat never fail to delivers the drama since horror it self is minor content of the movie. 'Cinderella' has a unique issue, dealing with women and their obsession of beauty. The depiction of human selfishness is quite profound. Alas it never has a clear resolution through the ending, while it clear that the horror gimmick is use only for scare tactic. The real transcendence of 'Cinderella' is the turmoil between mother-daughter. I think 'Cinderella are try it best to portray how a human to gain happiness could victimized other people. It rather moving as drama, but not satisfying enough to-be a good horror movie.