Welcome back to Movie Recap. Today I'm gonna show you a 2007 Korean horror film called,
Muoi: The Legend of a Portrait. Spoilers ahead. Watch out and take care.
The movie starts with a jump scare of a woman. Then, a girl is running in the castle;
she seems scared. She sees herself in the mirror having stained black in the face and shouts.
Afterward, a documentary begins interviewing people about Muoi’s curse being watched by
a woman in front of a computer. The students say it’s about betraying friends and love and
Muoi has two faces, pretty for bewitching and scary for revenge. One says Muoi put a curse
on the whole village but it’s only a legend. A grandma was filmed and exudes such scary energy.
Following that, the girl is now in a bar together with her friends.
One of them states that Yoon-hee said Seo-yeon is a promiscuous woman and she was sorry that
Ji-hoon hooked up with her. The two girls are arguing regarding their ex-friend in Vietnam
because she has betrayed her in her book. The man stops their argument and the two lovebirds take a
picture because she will borrow the camera she’ll use in Vietnam with their ex-friend.
Yoon-hee, the writer, receives a call from her editor saying that he needs the story now. Thus,
she goes to Vietnam to further study the legend. She finally lands and her friend, Seo-yeon,
welcomes her. Her friend gives her a tour and shows some pictures of Muoi, the girl
in the legend. As her ghost was rumored to haunt the village, monks tried to seal her spirit in
a portrait. However, the seal didn’t finish so the curse began. Yoon-hee becomes more curious.
She finds some things odd such as there were no victims of the curse yet.
She wants to call Professor Kim, whom Seo-yeon says is the one who told her about Muoi, but she
can’t give her his number for he is in Korea. Seo-yeon tries to ask how their other friends
are doing but Yoon-hee denies their connection and says they should go to bed for tomorrow.
The night came and they are now in a room. She turns off the shower
and goes to the bedroom wherein her friend is sleeping. Suddenly, the doorbell rings
repeatedly and the shower turns on by itself. She opens the curtain and sees a frightening woman;
she calls for her friend but it turns out the one sleeping has that terrifying face as well.
Yoon-hee runs to the door and Seo-yeon enters saying innocently that the room is haunted.
The next day, they go into her friend’s mansion, she doesn’t allow Yoon-he to go
to the other stairs because her painting room is her secret room. She shows her a
room that she’ll sleep with; they are now on a boat reminiscing their childhood memories.
Seo-yeon tells her again about Muoi wherein she fell in love with an artist named Nuen but left
her before completing her portrait. She cannot keep the portrait because Nuen has a wealthy
fiancee. The woman knew about it so she tells her men to go to Muoi’s place and torture her.
They cracked her bones and nails as well as stepping on her. The woman saw a ring on Muoi
and she was fueled in rage; she cut her finger then pours muriatic acid on her face.
Nuen thought Muoi left him but it’s just that Muoi couldn’t face him because of her face.
Thus, she hung herself and seek revenge. Seo-yeon leaves her alone in the house where all
of the incidents happen. Yoon-hee goes through the place and decides to take a picture for her book.
She walks around and sees a painting of Muoi and takes a picture.
As they go home, Seo-yeon lets Yoon-hee go to her room then gives her all the data and information
about the legend. The night came and Yoon-hee is now reviewing the data while Seo-yeon is sketching
and painting. While reading the information, the screeching of noises keeps on coming back,
it comes from the wall. She puts it back then decides to review the data again.
The next day after, she wakes her friend up and asks where Professor Kim works.
She needs to find something regarding the legend. They make an excuse about going to the bathroom
so the assistant lends them the keys. She goes to the room where the professor words; she sees
a book entitled “Muoi,” and puts it into her bag. Yoon-hee discovers that the seal of the curse was
lifted during World War II wherein the Japanese soldiers robbed a place where Muoi’s portrait
was kept. She also knew that Muoi can help people who seeks revenge and whoever casts
the curse should pay Muoi a price such as a human body. Seo-yeon then asks her
if she wants to see a copy of her portrait. They now go into a place where a man paints a
copy of anything he sees. When they ask for the portrait, the man becomes terrified. Seo-yeon
comes near the man and whispered something. He then agrees for the two girls to see the paint.
Seo-yeon translates what the man says wherein he states that while painting it, he felt
the spirit of Muoi and got scared. She says he persuaded him by saying that Yoon-hee got cursed.
The man opened the curtains and says that looking into her eyes, he could sense the spirit taking
over him so he covers her eye. Yoon-hee feels that it’s just a hoax because she already saw
the painting on the house and even took a picture of it. While swiping the pictures, it comes across
the two friends on the bar whom Seo-yeon used to hang out with. She walks out vastly while Yeon-hee
is explaining. She then states that, that is not mainly the problem because there is no portrait on
the house and that means she saw her ghost, which means she’s been cursed and will die like Muoi.
Suddenly, Seo-yeon laughs weirdly and says they will have fun instead.
They go to a bar and Seo-yeon introduces Yoon-hee to her friends. They click a toast then minutes
after, a foreigner is eyeing Seo-yeon; Yoon-hee tries to stop her from going to him but she just
says that maybe she’s jealous. Her friend goes to the man and dances while she drinks whiskey.
At the exit door of the bar, Yoon-hee is waiting for Seo-yeon, she apologizes
because she made her upset. However, Yoon-hee replies that she just confirmed the rumors about
her thus leaving Seo-yeon dumbfounded. Yoon-hee is now asleep, being awakened
by some noise from a door. She goes to a playground and follows the footsteps sounds.
She sees a child crying and recognizes Seo-yeon and that child becomes to have a scary face. She
wakes up with Seo-yeon taking care of her in bed while she rants about her father and the
life she would have had if she goes with him overseas. Yoon-hee is about to get up when
she sees herself being tied up in the bed then Seo-yeon asks her what did she say to her friends.
She picks up a scissor and muriatic acid. She says that Yoon-hee lies in her book about her,
saying she’s a slut and a maniac. Yoon-hee then wakes up being sweaty; she
cries hard and sees Seo-yeon in the dining area preparing breakfast. She apologizes for last night
for being sensitive; they talk about the process of her book. Yoon-hee says it is about grudge and
jealousy while Seo-yeon seems to be mad because of the words she used such as cruel and provocative.
She begins to feel the rage as she talks fast saying to her to put herself in Muoi’s shoes.
Yoon-hee prints the portrait of Muoi with her eyes covered while the wall again makes creepy noises.
Afterward, she goes outside and tries to talk to a stranger about the legend of Muoi.
Most of them ignore her but then an old woman grabs her arm very strongly; she gets to escape
but when she turns around, she sees nothing. She goes back to Professor’s office and decides
to annoy and get the assistant’s attention. She says that Seo-yeon is upset with her.
Later on, they are now in a conversation and the assistant says that she was also
gotten into Muoi by Seo-yeon; Professor Kim was into the legend because of her as well.
She doesn’t know what she told the professor but he became obsessed because of Seo-yeon’s
influence. The assistant even offers to lead her to the professor’s working place.
She goes to Seo-yeon’s house and sees her friends so she asks her why; she sees creepy feet that
peek from her bed curtain. She opens it then sees the woman facing backward. Yoon-hee is about to
touch her but then Seo-yeon comes beneath her saying that the dress is pretty. The woman she
sees become a dress so her face form in shock. The dress is for a wine party; they are now
preparing and putting on make-ups. As they finish the preparation, they go-ahead to the party.
The dinner comes but then Yoon-hee feels out of place. When she gets to talk with Seo-yeon,
the aura becomes intense as she opens the topic where she heard that she got sick. The rain pours
immediately so her friends go inside. Seo-yeon smiles painfully as she walks out the table.
Yoon-hee has finally come inside her room but the light keeps on blinking.
She goes outside and comes back but Seo-yeon’s friends go through her; they suddenly speak Korean
and confuse Yoon-hee. The two friends begin to have scary faces as they open their mouths
and she sees another girl in the mirror, when suddenly, she wakes up, that was a dream.
She goes downstairs and sees weird footstep marks in her friend’s room where she’s sleeping.
She moves closer and checks her feet then the marks on the floor disappear.
Yoon-hee decides to see the assistant again; she tells her that looking back,
Seo-yeon is more eager to study the legend that the professor itself that she went to the
point where she found a victim. The assistant says that she feels the victim was only paid
to tell that they were cursed. Yoon-hee asks if it’s true that the professor is in Korea;
she disagrees because she has his passport. The assistant gives her an hour to explore
the professor’s office. She sees a CD and plays it to a computer. The victim of the
curse explains herself in the video. She cannot sleep, continuously hearing the girl’s voice,
not seeing herself in the mirror and other signs where she knew she was cursed. Yoon-hee stares
at nothingness as she reminisces that she also experienced those things in her so-called, “dream”
The old woman appears in the video where she says don’t wake Muoi because you’ll die; Yoon-hee
immediately looks for his friend and sees a bunch of deep meaningful paintings in her room. Another
door opens and she sees herself in a painting; she also sees her book being half-opened,
having a deep red underline as annotations. She asks her if she wants revenge because
the happenings on the house are the same as the curse’s signs. She begins to pack while
Seo-yeon comes up and tells her that they should talk about the old days.
Not long after, they are now talking about their childhood while Yoon-hee doesn’t want
to hear those because she wants the truth. Seo-yeon says that the man,
Jihoon, asked her to meet him so she waits. A flashback plays wherein a bunch of men is
trying to hit on her in a playground. She tries to escape but the men hurt her physically,
punching and pulling her hair. Ji-hoon comes saying, “Can’t handle a chick?”.
A woman comes and they decide to assault her while the couple takes a video of the crime.
Back in the present, Seo-yeon says she can’t go back to Korea because of what happened;
Yoon-hee apologizes sincerely then her friend gives her a ring.
She says she should go to the temple so she’ll learn more about the curse.
Yoon-hee wakes up with Seo-yeon being possessed; she doesn’t know what to do so she cries.
A few hours passed and she is now taking care of Seo-yeon while asking about the location
of the temple. A friend of Seo-yeon’s says that Eunjung is her Koren name, Yoon-hee asks her to
go together to the temple. They reach it and walk through the hallways with some creepy paintings.
They enter the room and see an old man, a flashback starts playing with him,
Muoi, and Nuen. The man wants Muoi to stay with him and finish the portrait; she then appears
and lets him. While painting the eyes, a bunch of men comes chanting a song; the fiancé goes
to Nuen and a man stabs the canvas portrait. Going back to the present, the old man says
if she doesn’t stop now, the curse will be forever; he also states that Seo-yeon is Muoi.
He gives a metal wrapped in paper and says something that made Eunjung furious.
She decides to tell her that she needs to stab Seo-yeon’s heart using the thing the old man gave.
Yoon-hee comes in shock as she knew that killing her friend is the only way to end the curse.
Eunjung tells her that the curse is all a lie and she shall be back in Korea
and forget about the book. Not long after, she crashes because of a woman walking;
she dies as the tire of her motor continues to choke her using her scarf. She gives the metal to
Yoon-hee while greeting death. The woman who walks and the reason for the accident fainted as well.
The 15th of January comes with the full moon, she goes to the house in search of her friend.
The creepy noise keeps coming from the wall so she rips it then
a door hides over it. In shock, she opens it and the corpse of Professor Kim goes out.
She pulls out a slightly burnt picture wherein there were Japanese soldiers in the temple;
at the back of the picture says, “Death begins the curse.”
She goes through the room from where she discovers the door. A bunch of worms and other gross things
welcomes her. A burning sound creek the room and a recording play wherein one who awakens Muoi can’t
evade death. It also plays the chant that will call the spirit; Yoon-hee sees the portrait of
Muoi. The ring she was given begins to glow and Muoi comes to life running to her. She
is now stuck and the ghost goes after her again. She gets up and Seo-yeon comes; Yoon-hee shouts
but her friend gets the metal and points it to her heart. She says one of them has to die, she needs
to die for her to live. Muoi’s spirit goes to scare her thus she stabs her with the metal. She
cries and apologizes while Seo-yeon laughs saying that the curse will begin because of her death.
A pair of hands grabs Yoon-hee, Seo-yeon states that she cannot forgive her.
The old man gets informed that Muoi is back and the portrait is completed again.
She gets back in Korea while her old friend calls her phone, she says to wait patiently.
Three men are in a public comfort room laughing on tapes, she stares at one man and immediately dies.
The other two men come in panic and she kills them as well. The other ex-friend scrolls through
the pictures of her camera borrowed by Yoon-hee and suddenly, Muoi comes to her and kills her.
The movie ends with taking the life of Ji-hoon, Seo-yeon’s ex-fling,
in a playground. And Yoon-hee smiling from afar.