Getting Revenge On Your Least Favorite Teacher

I was going to finish up a review I started over at Top Horror Movies Club, but the site seems to be down for the moment. Not to big of a deal though. Not like I don't have a lot of reviews to catch up on here. I'm still exploring those pesky foreign films that people have to read. For a neighbor of mine, that is a big problem. They will keep a movie that I know they will like for months at a time, and claim they don't have the time to watch it, only to give it back to me unwatched. Sub titles and/or bad English dubs used to bother me some, but no longer. If they are real bad then sure, but I have learned to enjoy a movie even if I have to read my way through it. For today I have a review for the South Korean film To Sir With Love (2006), or as it is called on the DVD Bloody Reunion, which is actually a better title.

Mi-Ja (Yeong-hie Seo) is living with her formar teacher Miss Park (Mi-hee Oh). Mi-Ja has been taking care of Miss Park, whose health hasn't been very good of late. Miss Park knows this and wants to meet some of the other students one last time that were in Mi-Ja's class. Mi-Ja was able to contact six of these people, who are all now adults. As each arrives, they seem pretty happy to see Miss Park again. Eventually we learn that each one has a reason to hate Miss Park though. Like one was made to do squats so much one day that he hurt his knee playing soccer later in the day, which still hurts him to this day. Miss Park doesn't really seem to recall these mean things that she did to her students though. We also learn that Miss Park gave birth to a boy that was deformed. She kept him at home in the basement, and was often seen with a rabbit mask on. No one seems to know what happened to him though. When the former students start to die, who could be the one doing it? Is it the son? Is it the boy who was teased so bad one day that he quit school, and the watched him mother die the very same day?

At the start of To Sir With Love, we learn of the son right away. We also learn of the deaths of the students and that two people managed to survive, Mi-Ja and another woman. While a detective (Eung-soo Kim) questions Mi-Ja about what happened, we see the entire flashback. This goes on up until the last part of the movie, where a twist is thrown in. The twist was nice. It makes you rethink everything that happened in the flashback. Some people didn't like the flashback idea because if it was being told by the one person, why were other characters dreams included? In truth, the twist should answer that question for you. While I liked the twist, it did leave some open questions. Mostly it wasn't clear of the boy that Miss Park have birth to was real or not. I think he was, but not everyone agrees.Writer Se-yeol Park and director Dae-wung Lim manage to give the movie a good pace. While the slasher aspect of the film is pretty by the numbers, it does stay interesting at least. One thing I have to complain about though is there were scenes where the camera operator couldn't make up his mind if it was supposed to be a close up shot or not. One scene was every bad about this, with the camera zooming in and out constantly. It was very annoying.

To Sir With Love isn't a very gory film as far as effects go, but there was plenty of blood to go around. Some of the kills were also interesting. While it wasn't really a kill scene, it was fun watching ants going into one persons ear, and apparently causing the person a lot of pain. Another scene has to do with razor blades that I'm sure will make you wince. The acting also seemed to be pretty good. I didn't like them all, but I didn't feel I hated anyone for their acting. You can find Dong-kyu Lee, Ji-hyeon Lee, Hyo-jun Park, Hyeon-Soo Yeo and Seol-ah Yu.

There are a few things that can tip you off to what the big twist is. The start of the movie is part of the twist really. I also had to wonder if that Miss Park was so damn mean to everyone, why was it just these selected students, that have all came out of the same class, that wanted revenge? I was also a little confused by the last shot in the film. One of the characters isn't there, and I wasn't sure why. To Sir With Love isn't the best slasher film out there, but it was still a fun one. Looking back, I can't think of any teachers I would ever want to kill now, but I can see how some things teachers do can stick with someone for a long time. If you like you slasher films, this is one to check out someday.
3 out of 5 I want a rabbit mask now!