Whispering Corridors 4: The Voice Movie Review

『Fear of Being Forgotten and Obsession, Intertwined with Youth Anxiety and Mystery in a Girls’ High School Horror』

🎥 Movie Overview

🎬 Title: Whispering Corridors 4: The Voice (여고괴담 4: 목소리, 2005)
🌍 Country: 🇰🇷 South Korea
🎞️ Genre: Horror / Mystery / Occult
🗓️ Production & Release: CJ Entertainment
⏳ Runtime: ~100 minutes
📢 Director: Choi Ik-hwan

👩‍💼 Cast: Kim Ok-bin – Young-eon, Seo Ji-hye – Seon-min, Cha Ye-ryun – Cho-a,
Kim Seo-hyung – Music Teacher Hee-yeon, Im Hyun-kyung – Hyo-jung

🧩 In-Depth Story Analysis (Spoilers)

🎶 Projection of Loss and Affection

In Whispering Corridors 4: The Voice, the complex relationships among Young-eon, Hyo-jung, and Hee-yeon transcend simple teacher-student or peer relationships. They are tragically shaped by their psychological backgrounds of 'lack' and 'longing'. Their interactions begin with pathological attachment, reflecting and attempting to fill each other’s sense of loss.

👻 Hyo-jung and Hee-yeon: Suppressed Possessiveness and the Thread of Existence

For Hyo-jung, music teacher Hee-yeon was more than just a teacher. Hyo-jung harbored affection akin to love for Hee-yeon, which mutated into pathological possessiveness and obsession. As rumors and bullying spread in school because of these feelings, Hyo-jung chose the extreme act of suicide amid intense isolation. For Hyo-jung, Hee-yeon was the only thread connecting her to the world, and she believed her value existed only within Hee-yeon’s memory.

🕯️ Young-eon and Hee-yeon: Guilt and Desire for Salvation

Young-eon harbored deep guilt and loneliness over her mother’s suicide. For her, Hee-yeon’s warm attention and acknowledgment of her musical talent offered salvation from darkness. Hee-yeon, having lost her voice (dream of becoming a singer) in an accident, projected her lost self and unfulfilled dreams onto Young-eon’s exceptional voice. Their relationship ultimately became a mutually dependent projection attempting to fill each other’s deficits, crossing the boundaries of student-teacher norms.

💀 Hee-yeon’s Loss and the Soil of Tragedy

Ultimately, Hee-yeon projected her unfulfilled desires onto her students due to her past loss (voice). Her unstable psyche and yearning for attention became the fertile ground that fueled the pathological obsessions of Hyo-jung and Young-eon, setting the stage for the tragedy that would consume all three.

🎥 Jealousy and Murder (Hyo-jung’s Misdeeds)

As Hee-yeon’s attention shifted to Young-eon, Hyo-jung’s anxiety of “being forgotten” and jealousy erupted, triggering the tragic events.

• Escalation of Hyo-jung’s Anxiety: Though deceased, Hyo-jung attempts to remain near Hee-yeon, voicing herself. Seeing Hee-yeon gradually give affection to Young-eon, she feels her existence threatened. To Hyo-jung, Young-eon becomes the obstacle to her love and proof of existence.

• Murder and Obsession: Unable to overcome her jealousy and hatred, Hyo-jung uses supernatural power to kill Young-eon. (Hyo-jung = murderer/perpetrator, Young-eon = victim) This is the catastrophic result of Hyo-jung’s extreme possessiveness.

• Young-eon’s Lonely Ghosthood: After being murdered, Young-eon becomes a ghost whose voice alone can be heard, trapped in the school. She suffers double pain: unresolved guilt over her mother’s death and the trauma of being killed by Hyo-jung.

💡 End of Relationships: Annihilation and Possession

The entangled emotions among the three lead to tragic outcomes for all.

• Hee-yeon’s Suicide: The tragic death of Young-eon and guilt from her past with Hyo-jung inflict unbearable pain on Hee-yeon. She completes her own destruction by ending her life amidst her lost hope and guilt. Hee-yeon’s death severs the thread of existence that Hyo-jung clung to until the very end.

• Hyo-jung’s Erasure: With Hee-yeon gone, the focal point of her obsession, Hyo-jung loses her foundation of existence and gradually walks the path of self-erasure. Her tragedy concludes with the evil acts committed in the name of love ultimately obliterating herself.

• Young-eon’s Possession: Even after death, Young-eon clings to the desire to live and possesses her close friend Seon-min, experiencing a shocking conclusion by living vicariously through her. This becomes her only way to prove her existence, but simultaneously acts as both revenge against Hyo-jung’s evil deeds and a selfish attempt to escape her own guilt.

⚖️ Tragedy Represented Through the Voice

The relationships among Young-eon, Hyo-jung, and Hee-yeon demonstrate how the desires of girls craving 'love and recognition' within the oppressive environment of a girls’ high school can devolve into destructive obsession and hatred.

Hyo-jung commits murder out of fear of being 'forgotten', Young-eon obsesses over 'wanting to live' and takes over her friend’s life, and Hee-yeon projects her 'lost self' onto students, ultimately perishing at the center of this tragedy. Through the symbolic use of voice, the story chillingly portrays the terrifying consequences of humans’ desperate struggle to assert their existence.

🎯 Personal Rating (Subjective)

💕 Love Scene Intensity: ♥
⭐ Rating: ★★