White: Melody of Death


White: Melody of Death is a 2011 South Korean horror film directed by Kim Gok and Kim Sun.
The film was pre-sold in Malaysia and Singapore with the teaser trailer and poster released at the Hong Kong Film Mart. The movie was a commercial success grossing US$5,3 Million and ending up being the highest-grossing horror movie and among Top 30 highest-grossing movies in South Korea in 2011.
WWW white2011.co.kr

Plot

The girl group Pink Dolls, consisting of Je-ni, A-rang, Shin-ji, and Eun-ju, made their debut on stage but failed to achieve popularity. They and the record company relocated to a renovated studio that had been burned in a fire 15 years prior. Eun-ju's sponsor, Mr. Choi, who funds an idol or group on the condition that they receive sexual favors, was credited for making the move, and renovations happened. The other three members bully Eun-ju for her involvement with Mr. Choi as well as her past as a backup dancer and her age, and she considers quitting. Her vocal trainer and best friend, Soon-ye, encourages her to remain in the group as she believes they will find success and gain attention with their new song. While cleaning up in the dance rehearsal room, Eun-ju finds a VHS tape titled "WHITE", containing unfinished music video footage. Later on, Eun-ju plays the video in her dorm room, being discovered by the group's manager, who, after viewing it herself demands that the group be permitted to remake the song as their next single.
The Pink Dolls became overnight sensations with a live performance of "White", the song going viral across the country. The manager announces that the group will re-record the song and give it a music video, with one of the girls as the "main" focus. Tensions quickly rise between Je-ni, A-rang, and Shin-ji, who become jealous and hostile against each other as they fight over the "main" spot. Je-ni is initially chosen as "main" but is mysteriously strangled with microphone cords during a vocal session after being forced to overdose on her medication. A-rang is chosen to take her spot only to be attacked by a hostile, white-haired ghost during filming for the music video and poisoned by her cosmetics, causing her to fall and be hospitalized alongside Je-ni. Shin-ji is then chosen over Eun-ju, during filming for a survival reality show, the same apparition attacks her, inciting a riot among the spectators of the show and eventually resulting in Shin-ji being caught in the camera equipment and then crushed, joining the others in the hospital.
Fearing the song is cursed and that she will be the next victim, Eun-ju accompanies Soon-ye and her record producer, Tae-Yong, to examine hidden images within the video, and from there comes to believe that a trainee named Jang Ye-bin, who died before the studio caught fire, wrote the song. Eun-ju meets up with Mr. Choi and asks about the circumstances surrounding Ye-bin, and he replies that she died by suicide. After returning to the rehearsal room in a fit of depression, Eun-ju is menaced by the white-haired ghost until she collapses in the morning, where she finds a suicide note beside power sockets that may have started the fire. Eun-ju and Soon-ye take a priest to Ye-bin's grave, blessing it and asking her to move on. As they leave, however, they do not notice that the glass in a memorial photo of Ye-bin shatters ominously.
After feeling confident that the curse has been broken, Eun-ju takes credit for the song as her solo performance and plans to reinvent her image by dying her hair, dressing in white, and using the stage name "White". However, she becomes enviously arrogant and haughty, alienating her from Soon-ye and insisting that she is the only one responsible for "White"'s success as Je-ni, A-rang, and Shin-ji watch bitterly from the hospital while still recovering from their injuries. As Eun-ju prepares for her live debut as a solo act, a frustrated Soon-ye starts destroying the documents they had found regarding the song, only to realize that there is something wrong with this video.
She takes the video to Tae-Yong, and the two examine subliminal messages within the song, deducing that Ye-bin is not the actual singer of the song, and there is another figure in the video that they had not noticed. At the same time, they receive an emergency phone call from the television producer of the show that Je-ni, A-rang, and Shin-ji were hosting, who frantically tells them that the girls have gone into a trance, mesmerized while muttering about being "hot" before drinking bleach and dying live on air. Panicked Soon-ye attempts to call Eun-ju, who is on the way to a venue to perform "White", to warn her that the curse is not over, but Eun-ju begrudgingly ignores her. Tae-Yong and Soon-ye investigate further and finally discover that the true writer of the song is not Ye-bin, but a backup dancer who had been bullied by Ye-bin, who eventually disfigured the girl with acid, which caused her to commit suicide by drinking bleach and becoming the vengeful ghost who's responsible for attacking the other members. It is also revealed that the ghost's first victim was Ye-bin herself, who was killed by the ghost causing a fire that Ye-bin set to burn evidence out of control and burning down the entire studio.
Realizing the truth, Soon-ye rushes to the venue to rescue Eun-ju but cannot enter as the doors are locked and the show has begun. During Eun-ju's performance, all of the stage lights go out, and the electricity in the venue begins to malfunction. Eun-ju's manager and Mr. Choi try to get her off the stage, but they are both killed by stage equipment, and the white-haired ghost attempts to attack her. Afterward, the doors all open, and the panicking crowd starts to rush out of the building, Soon-ye enters and she and Eun-ju attempt to reunite, but Eun-ju trips in the crowd and gets trampled to death. The electricity eventually sets the venue on fire. After the incident, the now despondent Soon-ye mourns Eun-ju's death while destroying all of the remaining evidence of the song in the studio's karaoke room. As she burns them, however, Soon-ye is horrified to see the karaoke machine announce that the next song is "White," implying the possibility that the curse has not been broken.

Cast

Soundtrack

The soundtrack contains 3 versions of the song "White," the original, another sung by Pink Dolls, and a solo version with just Eun-jeong.

Reception

Box office

The film grossed its opening weekend landing at the fifth position of the box office chart. In total the film grossed by the end of its theatrical run. The film received a total of 791,133 admissions nationwide.

Release

White was released in Japan as a DVD on March 2, 2012 by NBC Universal. A re-issue was released in the same country on July 21, 2017.