Hello Ghost

Sang-man tries to kill himself and fails. When he wakes in hospital four people are standing over him. All four are dead. An old man who chain smokes, a weeping woman, a boy and a taxi driver. Only Sang-man can see them. They set a condition for leaving: each has a wish, and if he grants them they will go. Sang-man agrees. The wishes are strange and unconnected; one must see a woman, one must visit a child, one must eat a meal. Sang-man does all four in turn. Kim Yeong-tak writes and directs. Cha Tae-hyun plays Sang-man; Kang Ye-won and Lee Moon-su are in the cast. It is a Korean production. The film took a strong result at the Korean box office and was later remade in other countries. Its form is comedy; the first two sections are built entirely on humour. An explanation comes in the last section and the whole narrative takes on new meaning; the earlier scenes turn into something else. The matter it treats is solitude; Sang-man has nobody and the film does not say so at the start. Cha Tae-hyun was known for comedy in this period and the part uses that shape and breaks it at the end. The narrative takes suicide as a direct subject and does not treat it lightly. Its limit is structure; the first half is long, the humour crude at times, and the turn will feel strained to some. Who it is for: viewers who like Korean comedy drama and narratives with a turn. Who it is not for: the humour is uneven, the emotional dose high, and the premise familiar.