To Sir, with Love (2006 film)

To Sir, with Love
Theatrical poster
Hangul	스승의 은혜
Revised Romanization	Seuseung-ui eunhye
McCune–Reischauer	Sŭsŭng-ŭi ŭn-hye
Directed by	Im Dae-woong
Written by	Park Se-yeol
Starring	Oh Mi-hee Seo Young-hee
Cinematography	Kim Yoon-su
Edited by	Park Gok-ji
Distributed by	Show East
Release dates	August 3, 2006 (2006-08-03)
Running time	93 minutes
Country	South Korea
Language	Korean
Box office	$3,094,683[1]

To Sir, with Love (Hangul: 스승의 은혜; RR: Seuseungui Eunhye) (aka My Teacher, Teacher's Mercy and Bloody Reunion) is a 2006 South Korean horror film, and the feature film debut of director Im Dae-Woong.

Plot

Detective Ma investigates a mass murder at the residence of Ms. Park. Five were killed with two survivors: Ms. Park and her caretaker, Mi-Ja. Mi-Ja then recounts her story to Ma.

Mi-Ja, the caretaker of her ex-teacher, Ms. Park, organizes a reunion with her ex-classmates: Se-Ho, Eun-Young, Dal-Bong, Sun-Hee, Myung-Ho, and Jung-Won. Each resent Ms. Park for different reasons: the couple Se-Ho and Eun-Young because of Ms. Park's belittling of their poverty; Dal-Bong because of his cast leg caused by Ms. Park punishing him to do repeated squatting after losing a relay during a track and field meet; Sun-Hee because of Ms. Park's criticizing of her former obesity; and Myung-Ho because of his trauma of Ms. Park sexually abusing him. The friendless and quiet Jung-Won, once ridiculed for defecating in the class, stopped attending school when his mother was hit by a car and has only recently met with Ms. Park again since the previous year. Nevertheless, they all try to maintain a facade of jolliness for the reunion.

One by one, though, tensions arise and the ex-students become more open about their anger. Se-Ho drunkenly explodes with anger during the barbecue party and accuses the others of lying to themselves. He heads for the beach where a bunny-masked figure attacks and drags him to the basement, where he is killed. Eun-Young tries to indirectly drown Ms. Park while the latter is bathing, though it fails due to Mi-Ja's intervention. She is attacked by the bunny figure at the bedroom and killed in the basement. Next, Dal-Bong tries to attack Ms. Park while the latter is vulnerable at the bed, but is attacked by the bunny figure, who inserts insects into his ear to kill him. Throughout the murders, flashbacks show the ex-students laughing at Ms. Park's deformed son who wore a bunny mask to hide his face. Only Jung-Won wanted to befriend him, but Ms. Park mistakenly assumed him as the bully and brushed him off. Sun-Hee and Myung-Ho talk at the beach about their traumatic experiences with Ms. Park. They are alerted by Mi-Ja discovering the other three's bodies at the basement. Sun-Hee uses this opportunity to take Ms. Park to the forest and tries to throw her off the cliff, but is interrupted by Mi-Ja. In the ensuing struggle, Sun-Hee falls off the cliff to her death. Mi-Ja drives Ms. Park back home but is knocked out by Myung-Ho, who would have immolated his ex-teacher alive if not for the bunny figure killing him. The figure, revealed to be Jung-Won, is stopped from harming Ms. Park further by Mi-Ja.

Detective Ma investigates Jung-Won's supposed apartment. All he finds is his mother's decaying corpse, women's clothing, and articles about the success of Ms. Park's ex-students, contrary to Mi-Ja's claims. It is revealed that there is no male ex-student of Ms. Park bearing the name "Jung-Won"; it is instead the real name of Mi-Ja. She fabricated the story about her life to her classmates: she was poor, obese, broke her leg after doing Ms. Park's punishment, and "defecated" in the class, which was actually her blood mixing up with dung during her first menstruation. Her mother was handicapped during the car accident and died when she was an adult. Jung-Won then took the identity of Mi-Ja and became Ms. Park's caretaker until she could kill her classmates at the reunion by poisoning them in front of Ms. Park.

Jung-Won drives Ms. Park to the beach and vents her frustration at her before committing suicide by jumping from the pier, which Ms. Park can only watch on. The film closes with Ms. Park's wheelchair lying empty on the pier.

Cast

• Oh Mi-hee as Ms. Park, the old teacher dying of an illness and is resented by the other characters. In her eyes she thought she was doing what was best for them.
• Seo Young-hee as Mi-Ja/Jung-Won, the only student who doesn't resent Ms. Park and works as her caretaker. Mi-Ja and Ms. Park share a special bond.
• Lee Ji-Hyun as Sun-Hee, was once obese and teased by Ms. Park but then became skinny and obsessed with her appearance and weight. She has to wear sunglasses to hide the stitches from a recent eye surgery.
• Lee Dong-kyu as Myung-Ho, a boy who was always favoured by Mrs Park. It is hinted that she made sexual contact with him that has left him scarred for life.
• Yu Seol-ah as Eun-Young, the class vice president whose family was to be poor. For a present, she made her a card that said "I love you Ms. Park". Ms. Park then ridiculed her in front of the entire class.
• Park Hyo-jun as Dal-Bong, used to be the most athletic boy in school. After he came last in a relay, Ms. Park slapped him and made him spend a day doing squats, which later caused him to permanently injure his knee when playing soccer the next day.
• Yeo Hyun-soo as Se-Ho, the former class president who was close to Eun-Young. Ms. Park bullied him for being poor. He is the first to tell Ms. Park how he feels in a drunken rage.
• Jang Seong-won as "Jung-Won", the shy boy that no one used to talk to. He apparently "pooped his pants" during lesson once and the entire class laughed at him including Ms. Park. His mother was then severely injured in a car accident and he dropped out of school, only to reappear at the reunion years later.
• Kim Eung-soo as Detective Ma, trying to figure out the case of the murders.

References

External links

• To Sir, with Love at the Internet Movie Database
• To Sir, with Love at AllMovie
• To Sir, with Love at HanCinema
• Review at Koreanfilm.org