Ghost Walk or "The Door of the Night Opens" is a slow-burning, moody piece of fantasy that's rooted to modern-day issues like urban alienation and unfulfilled personal dreams in a capitalist age. Hae-in Han efficiently plays the apathetic, depressed, loner protagonist who becomes an invisible, wandering ghost after her death. She finds out that although in life she tried to maintain a lonely existence disconnected from others, her death on the other hand is but a piece of a larger social phenomenon. First-time director Yu Eun-jeong did a commendable job building a quiet, contemplative atmosphere. Almost nothing in this film - cinematography, music, pacing - tries to impose itself, but they effectively add substance to the storytelling. The first-person narration sometimes feels patchy - too introspective in some places or too barren, generic in some others. The final act, although predictable, does well enough to establish itself as a piece of serious cinema, and not some emotional tearjerker that films with similar plotlines often turn into.
Review of Ghost Walk
