Jakarta. South Korean horror movie “Tarot” will hit Indonesian cinemas soon, and the way that the film was orchestrated made me feel like watching a collection of short, unrelated horror stories unfold.

Directed by Choi Byung-Gil, the 94-minute-long movie is a 3-story film -- each part revolves around someone randomly finding a tarot card and eventually having a series of bad luck. But the only thing that was on my mind -- throughout the recent movie screening -- was that “Tarot” was just another anthology of horror stories and nothing more. 

The first story “Do You Believe in Santa?” centers around working mom Ji-woo (Cho Yeo Jeong) who has to leave her daughter at home on Christmas. The second episode “Going Home” follows the story of a cheating husband and businessman Kyung-rae (Ko Kyu Phil) who has to go on a creepy, late-night taxi ride. The movie ends with the “Delivery Call” episode starring Kim Jin Young as Dong-in, a veteran delivery driver who encounters bizarre experiences when on the job.

The trio Ji-woo, Kyung-rae, and Dong-in have some similarities. They accidentally stumble upon a tarot card, and none of them get their happy ending. Each episode usually ends with a brief explanation on a reversed tarot card, which pretty much explains why the characters end up being the way they are. However, “Tarot” still feels like a disjointed work. Bad luck and random tarot cards are not enough to tie the three stories together.

Out of all three, “Going Home” becomes a personal favorite. While the story is suspenseful, it incorporates a bit of dark humor. It turns out that Kyung-rae has mistaken the creepy taxi driver for a serial killer. The driver was just a man who was hunting deer for money. After having killed the driver, Kyung-rae pretended to be the man and met unnamed buyers. These unfortunate buyers, who were expecting to get a deer, went into full panic mode after realizing they had met with a murderer. The conversation between the buyers actually made the screening’s audience break into laughter. Kyung-rae also appears to be the most complex character out of the main trio. So the lack of strong cohesion does not mean “Tarot” is bad. It is still quite an enjoyable popcorn movie.

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