ewww, that doesn't sound good at all. Forced script changes during production are never very good as far as I can tell.

"old boy" is an incredible movie, i would have to agree with you there. i also enjoyed "infection" for being super creepy in some places and "premonition"

Bunman?!?! The name's frickin funny, like Big Head Monster. I'm gonna check it out. Story sounds kinda like the recent short, Dumplings from the Three...Extremes compilation, you should check it out. I have developed a new phobia of pot stickers lately.

A Tale of Two Sisters was excellent, it should have gotten a lot more recognition. Oldboy I have mixed feelings, but agree that Chan Wook Park is a talented director (check out Cut from the Three...Extremes series too) and shows promise. I've been generally impressed by the level of attention to cinematography in Korean horror lately.

I would say that Korea has come a long way from just rehashing Japanese horror. That seems to be Hollywood's job now, motivated out of profit and a paranoia of releasing a film that feels too "asian," instead of Korea, who did it out of necessity because of distribution restrictions. Despite the fact that Japan can't seem to let go of Ringu-technology-chainletter type themes, I would say that it's premature to say that the Japanese are beat for too long, I think it's more of a temporary lull.

I'm gonna put my money on Takashi Miike. The guy's a powerhouse, consistently churning out decent quality and original ideas (considering the sheer volume of his quickly growing body of work). With Oxide Pang from Hong Kong as a runner-up. I liked Abnormal Beauty, or the first three quarters of it, at least. Looking foward to see how the forthcoming Scarecrow is.

Honorable mention:

Hideo Nakata is a wild card, he has a couple of films in the works right now. Dark Water was good, but felt a little tired, like he had played himself out on Ringu. We can always hope that his next releases will change this trend.

Takashi Shimizu of Ju-On is working on a film, The Death, to be released next year, he's kinda new to the scene, I'm not sure if he's a flash in the pan or not yet. Still kinda riding on the coattails of Ju-On, with number 3 in the works which makes me a little worried.

I really loved the 'Tomie' series. Weird and creepy and disturbing. Not as spooky as The Eye, but great nonetheless. I'll have to check out A Tale of Two Sisters for sure.