Acacia [DVD] [2003] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

A very well acted film. The production was impeccable. When you find out what's going on, it comes as a total surprise. Everyone was that good. And some how Korean in not so bad on the ear, as Japanese or Cantonese. It was a delight to watch.

... but overall it is a good movie to watch.A couple adopt a child because apparently they cannot have a child of their own. The child is brilliant and he is always drawing. He is quiet and lovely.Everything changed when the couple finally is able to have a child.The adopted children feels like he is being put aside and disappears. By the time of his disappearance, the acacia tree starts to have new leafs and flowers (it was supposed to be dead).What happened to the tree?Like the others wrote, this is not an horror movie, but a family drama one. It is nice, but pay attention to the ending or you may be a little confused.

Expertly done. Natural progression from 'corridors'. Photography is great!

Not bad, seen better

It's a sad feature of the success of Asian film now that much of it is immediately compared with the most commercially successful films (Ring,The Grudge etc). Since most of these films fall within the horror genre, so many new films are being marketed in the same way. This is not a horror film, although a few scenes could certainly be described as disturbing.The story centres round a couple who, after being unsuccessful in having a child, decide to adopt one. The child never seems to bond with its adopted parents and when the mother finds out she is pregnant, it becomes increasingly alienated from its adopted parents.It is a sad film depicting suffering on the part of the child and also the parents. The acacia of the title refers to the tree in their garden that mysteriously begins flowering only after the disappearance of the adopted child. Well worth watching, but don't get caught up in the commercial aspirations of Asian cinema. Not all Asian horror is good film, and not all good Asian film is horror.

A couple adopt a child, who goes missing. The mother has nightmares about him, and she is certainly unsettled by him, but perhaps it's not the mother who should be afraid...A good story, with a more sinister ending than I had anticipated, this film pretty much sums up S.Korean cinema, and is gripping, despite the placid film language. Just what I love about this genre.

After watching this film I was impressed by the sense of sorrow it left on you as the closing credits fell. It's atmospheric but lacks suspense or tension which makes this type of film thrive.This film had a lot of potential to be a classic modern Asian ghost story, but the story and characters were not developed enough or did not demonstrate enough motive for what the characters were going through. Some of the scenes seemed rushed and not thought out properly, especially as this film tried to portray a realistic family situation throughout, but instead the realism was substandard and too over dramatised hence the balance was wrong between realism and surrealism, and this compromised the impact of the extraordinary aspects of the picture.Over all it was a good film, but a film that should be rented before being bought.

Given the write-up for this movie, I watched this in the hope that there would be some similarity to the scenes involving the tree in the first Poltergeist film as I remember these as being quite creepy. Sadly however there wasn't.Acacia has a sorrowful feel to it and you find yourself bonding with the little orphaned boy. However, there was no real character-development and therefore it's hard to relate to or even care about anyone else.On the whole I found this to be disappointing and feel that classifying this as a horror was misleading. It's better described as an intense family drama.That said - it's nicely filmed with some good acting, especially from the youngsters. In this respect I would rate it with 3 out of 5 stars. The 2-star rating given above is based on its merits as a horror.Better to rent than buy - unless it's particularly cheap.