WOMAN CHASING THE BUTTERFLY OF DEATH is a South Korean horror flick from 1978 that has to be seen to be believed. It starts off with suicide and moves onto a bizarre adventure all about the "will to live", which apparently has the power to transcend death itself at times. There's an old guy who gets murdered but keeps coming back (a bit like the hitchhiker in CREEPSHOW 2),an archaeologist studying human skulls and his terminally ill daughter, and a 2,000 year old female skeleton in a cave that regenerates to life (like in THE CREEPING FLESH). The whole thing is cheap and schlocky looking, but deadly serious, which somehow makes it funnier at times. I enjoyed all the macabre and outre elements despite the paucity of the effects, but in the second half it loses a lot of steam and goes on about forty minutes too long come the cop-out ending.
Plot summary
A dour student, Young-gul, crosses paths with an elderly book salesman obsessed with Hitler and Nietzsche, a two-thousand year-old female corpse, and a mad scientist. Young-gul wants to commit suicide but the book salesman insists the human will even overcome biological death. Young-gul tests this by trying to kill him. Later the corpse comes to life in the hope that Young-gul will impregnate her.
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Movie Reviews
See it to believe it
Great one for late at night
Delightfully strange beginning half hour (giggle-inducing, embracing death versus will-to-live horror premise) gives over to a seemingly disconnected, or conveniently connected yet meandering, subplot which somehow becomes the bulk and main thrust of the film. It's all deliriously macabre, languidly mad and dark. A great late night mind tickler.
Why this film is not widely available on home video as a cult classic is anybody's guess but for now it is available in its entirety on YouTube as part of the Korean Film Archive. The English subtitles are there, you just have to turn them on.
A film for those who like exploring outside of the mainstream oddities.
I Can See The Strings On The Butterfly Of DEATH
Tells the tale of life and death and s···. Woman Chasing The Butterfly Of Death has all the makings of a very strange yet somehow philosophical Korean horror film. Unfortunately, I'm ambivalent with this one. It does have some "interesting" if not cheap ass special effects, some weird moments and an interesting concept but in typical South Korean fashion it's moves slowly and there is too much idle chit chat fillers and it's 25 minutes too f···ing long. It's not a disappointment but it's only worth watching once or twice at the most.