"Anesthesia Awareness" is a condition when anesthesia fails during surgery, leaving the patient completely conscious and feeling every incision, but paralyzed and incapable of doing anything about it. More than 60,000 people domestically each year experience this rare phenomenon, which become a central idea to Korean psychothriller “Return” aka “Wide Awake”. “Return” is one of this year summer season K-horror which continue the trend of thrillers that unleashes major twists and turns during the climatic moments of the film like what have been presented in “Black House”, “The Cut” or “The World of Silence”. The debuting director Lee Gyu-man tried to build the suspense from the mind of an Anesthesia Awareness victim who became a psychophat in the way to be rid from his trauma. The script cleverly played on the characters area, keep the audience guessing who’s the real culprit from several characters in the story which will bring us to a smart double twist toward the ending that widely reveals all the suspicions. Korean version region 3 DVD for this labyrinthine plot movie where everyone can becomes a suspect, now is ready for release and suit everybody who’s interested with an unexpected mystery thriller which will keep you guessing right to the very end.
The movie start with an incident in 1982, a 9 year old Sang-woo, expiriences "Anesthesia Awareness" during his own heart surgery, even though he was administered the normal amount of anesthesia. After the operation, he claims that he has been conscious throughout the surgery but can’t move any muscle or scream to tell anyone, he feels the knife slowly cuts open his chest an the doctor rearranges the organ inside him. But no one believes the traumatized little boy, even his own parents. As a result, after the incident, Sang-woo grows with an odd and rude behavior, the child also ends up brutally murdering a young girl who is his schoolmate. His parent who can’t control his weird manner anymore, then have to placed their only son in a mental institution, where several psychiatrists decide to use some radical treatment methods in order to cure him. Twenty years later, a surgeon by the name of Ryu Jae-woo (Kim Myeong-min) notices a series of gruesome murders involving medical personnel.
Even his life was being harassed by threatening phone calls from a former patient of his, Lee Myeong-seok (Kim Roe-ha), who blames him for his wife’s death during an operation and threat to kill Ryu’s wife, Heui-jin (Kim Yu-mi). Next, things are get even more complicated when a closest childhood friend of Ryu’s, the suspicious-looking Gang Uk-hwan (Yu Jun-sang) suddenly returns to Korea from U.S and pays him a visit, Gang seems upset when Ryu can’t remember their childtime vow of blood brotherhood. Ryu also has a trouble with his anesthetist partner, Jang Seok-ho (Jeong Yu-seok), in a different opinion about Ryu’s idea on using hypnosis rather than anesthesia during a difficult surgery, Jang against the idea partly because its been recommended by a strange hypnotherapy speacialist, Oh Chi-hun (Kim Tae-woo) who is seem knows Jang’s past little secret. When Heui-jin becomes suddenly collapses with an inexplicable fever, she was taken to the emergency room and they found a mysterious object in her stomach. It has no choice but perform a surgery to bring out the thing, Ryu who is reluctant to operate on his wife was forced to lead the operation when there isn’t time to get another surgeon, but things go horribly wrong.
Product Details:
Product Title:Return (DVD) (Limited Edition) (Korea Version)
Actors:Kim Myeong-min, Yu Jun-sang, Kim Tae-woo, Jeong Yu-seok, Kim Yu-mi, Kim Roe-ha, Baek Seung-hwan.
Directors: Lee Gyu-man
Format: Anamorphic Widescreen 2.35:1, Color, NTSC
Language: Korean
Subtitle: English, Korean
Audio Specs: Korean Dolby Digital 5.1
Region: Region 3 South East Asia (including Hong Kong, S. Korea and Taiwan)
Number of discs: 2
Country Made:South Korea
Genre: Suspense-Thriller
Feature Film Running Time: 113 Minutes
Distributor: Enter One
Release Date: December 5, 2007 (Order your copy now!)
DVD Special Features:
- Audio Commentary by Director & Casts
- After Audio Commentary
- Behind The Scenes (36 mins)
- Art Design
- Charaters Images
- Costume Design
- Intra-operative Awareness
- Making of Music
- Conti Images
- Music Video
- Deleted Scenes (DD 5.1 Audio + 90 mins)
Operation Rating: 7/10
Other Medical Related Thrilling DVD: The Cut, Epitaph, Black House
A little review for Return:
Script's main trick is to keep the audience guessing as to which of the protags is actually the adult Sang-woo -- especially as it becomes clear through flashbacks that Sang-woo has been murdering everyone connected with his disastrous operation as a boy. Double twist near the end is clever, though its execution is dramatically a tad clumsy. Putative lead Kim Myeong-min is OK as the troubled Ryu, though the supporting thesps grab most of the character honors. Kim Tae-woo ("Woman Is the Future of Man") is especially good as the smoothly confidant shrink. Tech package is clean and chilly, to the usual Korean high standards. Original title translates as "Return," but pic is now being sold internationally as "Wide Awake." (Review by Derek Elley, taken from “Variety”)
Source: YesAsia, Hancinema (Photos)
The movie start with an incident in 1982, a 9 year old Sang-woo, expiriences "Anesthesia Awareness" during his own heart surgery, even though he was administered the normal amount of anesthesia. After the operation, he claims that he has been conscious throughout the surgery but can’t move any muscle or scream to tell anyone, he feels the knife slowly cuts open his chest an the doctor rearranges the organ inside him. But no one believes the traumatized little boy, even his own parents. As a result, after the incident, Sang-woo grows with an odd and rude behavior, the child also ends up brutally murdering a young girl who is his schoolmate. His parent who can’t control his weird manner anymore, then have to placed their only son in a mental institution, where several psychiatrists decide to use some radical treatment methods in order to cure him. Twenty years later, a surgeon by the name of Ryu Jae-woo (Kim Myeong-min) notices a series of gruesome murders involving medical personnel.
Even his life was being harassed by threatening phone calls from a former patient of his, Lee Myeong-seok (Kim Roe-ha), who blames him for his wife’s death during an operation and threat to kill Ryu’s wife, Heui-jin (Kim Yu-mi). Next, things are get even more complicated when a closest childhood friend of Ryu’s, the suspicious-looking Gang Uk-hwan (Yu Jun-sang) suddenly returns to Korea from U.S and pays him a visit, Gang seems upset when Ryu can’t remember their childtime vow of blood brotherhood. Ryu also has a trouble with his anesthetist partner, Jang Seok-ho (Jeong Yu-seok), in a different opinion about Ryu’s idea on using hypnosis rather than anesthesia during a difficult surgery, Jang against the idea partly because its been recommended by a strange hypnotherapy speacialist, Oh Chi-hun (Kim Tae-woo) who is seem knows Jang’s past little secret. When Heui-jin becomes suddenly collapses with an inexplicable fever, she was taken to the emergency room and they found a mysterious object in her stomach. It has no choice but perform a surgery to bring out the thing, Ryu who is reluctant to operate on his wife was forced to lead the operation when there isn’t time to get another surgeon, but things go horribly wrong.
Product Details:Product Title:Return (DVD) (Limited Edition) (Korea Version)
Actors:Kim Myeong-min, Yu Jun-sang, Kim Tae-woo, Jeong Yu-seok, Kim Yu-mi, Kim Roe-ha, Baek Seung-hwan.
Directors: Lee Gyu-man
Format: Anamorphic Widescreen 2.35:1, Color, NTSC
Language: Korean
Subtitle: English, Korean
Audio Specs: Korean Dolby Digital 5.1
Region: Region 3 South East Asia (including Hong Kong, S. Korea and Taiwan)
Number of discs: 2
Country Made:South Korea
Genre: Suspense-Thriller
Feature Film Running Time: 113 Minutes
Distributor: Enter One
Release Date: December 5, 2007 (Order your copy now!)
DVD Special Features:
- Audio Commentary by Director & Casts
- After Audio Commentary
- Behind The Scenes (36 mins)
- Art Design
- Charaters Images
- Costume Design
- Intra-operative Awareness
- Making of Music
- Conti Images
- Music Video
- Deleted Scenes (DD 5.1 Audio + 90 mins)
Operation Rating: 7/10Other Medical Related Thrilling DVD: The Cut, Epitaph, Black House
A little review for Return:
Script's main trick is to keep the audience guessing as to which of the protags is actually the adult Sang-woo -- especially as it becomes clear through flashbacks that Sang-woo has been murdering everyone connected with his disastrous operation as a boy. Double twist near the end is clever, though its execution is dramatically a tad clumsy. Putative lead Kim Myeong-min is OK as the troubled Ryu, though the supporting thesps grab most of the character honors. Kim Tae-woo ("Woman Is the Future of Man") is especially good as the smoothly confidant shrink. Tech package is clean and chilly, to the usual Korean high standards. Original title translates as "Return," but pic is now being sold internationally as "Wide Awake." (Review by Derek Elley, taken from “Variety”)
Source: YesAsia, Hancinema (Photos)
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