Review: Underappreciated THE DEVIL'S STAIRWAY Is a Sinister Psychological Horror

By Patryk Czekaj

Lee Man-hee’s 1964 film The Devil's Stairway is a strikingly sinister psychological horror that, even after all these years, possesses the ability to frighten even the most devoted fans of the genre. What’s unreasonable to me is that the picture never got enough attention and its darkly sensuous powers somehow failed to garner it the critical attention this hallucinatory work truly deserves. Why The Devil's Stairway to this day remains an underwatched gem of Korean cinema is a mystery. Thus, by writing a bit about its many strong points I’d really like to encourage everyone to see (it’s available for free on Korean Film Archive’s YouTube channel) and experience this eerily inviting film.

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Lee Man-hee's The Road to Sampo (삼포 가는길, Samo Ganeungil) 1975

Korea is not known for road movies and given that the country is smaller than many US states, this hardly comes as a surprise. Nevertheless, some of its most celebrated films take place on the road. Displaced characters have trudged along Korea's weather-beaten paths in search of a home in many a Korean film. Examples include Im Kwon-taek's Sopyeonje (1993), a mournful paean to the Pansori tradition (a style of sung folk narrative featuring a vocalist and a percussionist), and Lee Man-hee's ebullient swan song, The Road to Sampo (1975).

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Weekly Review Round-up (01/07-01/13, 2012)

A pair of reviews for last year's breakout debut Bleak Night and a number of writeups for various independent and classic Korean film to boot.

RECENT RELEASES

Bleak Night

(Hanguk Yeonghwa, January 8, 2012)

(Modern Korean Cinema, January 8, 2012)

Fighting Spirit

(Modern Korean Cinema, January 10, 2012)

Leafie, A Hen Into the Wild

(hancinema.net, January 7, 2012)

Moss

(Flickering Myth, January 9, 2012)

Passerby #3

(Rainy Day Movies, January 9, 2012)

Quick

(Modern Korean Cinema, January 12, 2012)

Re-encounter

(Hangul Celluloid, January 9, 2012)

Sector 7

(Beyond Hollywood, January 10, 2012)

Sunny

(Rainy Day Movies, January 11, 2011)

The Servant

(Asian Movie Web, January 9, 2012)

PAST FILMS

A Brand New Life, 2009

(Rainy Day Movies, January 10, 2012)

A Day Off, 1968

(Init_Scenes, January 11, 2012)

Black Hair, 1964

(Init_Scenes, January 9, 2012)

Memories of Murder, 2003

(Hanguk Yeonghwa, January 11, 2011)

Night and Day, 2008

(DVD Talk, January 8, 2012)

Romantic Warriors, 2003

(New Korean Cinema, January 12, 2012)

Secret Sunshine, 2007

(BloggersBase, January 8, 2012)

The Weekly Review Round-up is a weekly feature which brings together all available reviews of Korean films in the English language (and sometimes French) that have recently appeared on the internet. It is by no means a comprehensive feature and additions are welcome (email pierceconran [at] gmail [dot] com). It appears every Friday morning (GMT+1) on Modern Korean Cinema. For other weekly features, take a look at Korean Cinema News, and the Korean Box Office Update. Reviews and features on Korean film also appear regularly on the site. 

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