‘Shaving’ review: A woman is haunted by her abusive past in frustrating Korean psychological horror

Dir: Kim Jung-hoon. South Korea. 2026. 93mins

A restorative long weekend intended to be one of many steps in a young woman’s recovery from years of domestic violence turns into a harrowing confrontation with her past in Kim Jung-hoon’s Shaving, a conventional genre piece that’s one part drama, one part psychological horror. Despite moody, evocative (if occasionally on the nose) camerawork and an effectively eerie score, Shaving’s confused storytelling and lack of coherence ultimately makes it a frustrating exercise.

Undercooked character development

Kim made his debut in 2013 with under-the-radar crime thriller Tinker Ticker, which commented on systemic social failings and a humiliating corporate world. His second feature similarly turns the lens on systems of oppression and violence, this time personal ones – but Shaving doesn’t have the same sharp focus and empathy for its protagonist. Nonetheless, the horror tone and presence of young stars Shin Ryu-jin of K-pop girlband ITZY and Japanese actor Show Kasamatsu could see the film travel to further festival berths following its Busan competition premiere. It could also find a home with a speciality streamer.

Initially it’s unclear whether the film’s mysterious cold open, in which a woman appears to be trapped in a speeding car with her kidnapper/abuser, is a memory or imagination, as horror author Choi Su-yeon (Roh Jeong-eui) discusses her work and her hiatus on a radio call in show. Explaining that her next book is going to deal with “her story” it’s possible the scene of the terrified woman and the manic man is indeed a moment from her life. It transpires that, three years earlier, Su-yeon escaped an abusive relationship under a cloud of controversy, and is now piecing her life back together with help from her manager Mi-na (Shin) and her supportive boyfriend Shinji (Kasamatsu, Tokyo Vice),

A weekend away in Su-yeon’s father’s isolated house, is designed to help the couple connect and give Su-yeon time to write but, when Shinji cuts himself on an old, rusty razor they find in a medicine chest, the malevolent presence of her ex-boyfriend Hyun-woo (Tinker Ticker star Byun Yo-han) comes roaring back into her life. In a massive betrayal, he seems to be turning Shinji into the same controlling, dangerous partner he was.

Shaving is ostensibly about the outsized power, influence and dangerous possessiveness of men like Hyun-woo and how the trauma of their violence leave women like Su-yeon seeing them in every other man they encounter. It also makes a point about the potential for violence that lurks just under the surface of even the most gentle of men. That’s a complicated needle to thread, and the message is left almost entirely up to Roh to convey. While committed to the role, she is unable to convincingly illustrate the tension between Su-yeon’s seeming resolve to reclaim her life and the unshakable fear that she’ll never be truly free of Hyun-woo. Some of that may be a result of her placid performance, though some is undoubtedly due to the screenplay’s undercooked character development.

Despite Kim having a firm grasp of horror convention and its imagery, the film is also weighed down by too many endings and a muddled resolution that adds little to the conversation. Shaving does touch on the often-overlooked impact of oblivious family and friends who insisting that a woman “snagged a good one”, and the fact that experience of violence can make someone reframe their current experiences. Tackling these thorny issues head-on could have given Shaving a strong thematic heft; as it stands, it plays as a relatively diverting damsel-in-distress genre movie.