Na's best movie so far!
After six years of waiting, The Wailing finally arrived on our screens, the third film by Na Hong-Jin, a director who already left us with a twisted ass in his two previous (and excellent) The Chaser and The Yellow Sea.However, and without leaving aside the thriller path, here we find a much more unleashed, supernatural and wild Na. If anyone doubted that he was going to soften because he had money from 20th Century Fox, forget it.
The Wailing is pure evil, blood and madness. In short: a work as absurd as it is essential.
Was this review helpful to you?
Daring, original and crazy South Korean horror.
Na Hongjin continues to establish herself as one of the most exciting creative voices in South Korean cinema. With The Wailing he is more ambitious, original and delightfully crazy than ever before."Not everything that moves, breathes and talks is alive"
The film's original title is Gokseung, which is the name of the sleepy little South Korean mountain village where the story takes place. The residents live simple lives, everyone knows everyone and the police force has nothing meaningful to do. All this changes when a mysterious Japanese man (Jun Kunimura) settles in the village. Right after his arrival, horrors begin to happen when some villagers seem to suffer from some kind of physical and mental illness. First, they lose their minds completely and go on a violent rampage against themselves and others, followed by an inevitable and painful death.
Primarily, we get to view the course of events through the perspective of police officer Jong-Goo (Kwak Dowon), as the uncontrollable chaos moves closer and closer to his personal sphere. Like the other villagers, he struggles with increasing paranoia and an increasingly important question: Do the events just have something to do with hallucinatory mushrooms in the forest, or has the devil himself come to Gokseung?
You're never quite sure of the answer, but the events get steadily weirder and the plot more complex as the game progresses. When the film's credits roll, you have at least as many questions as answers, which I love. It will take a number of rewatches for me to really grasp everything that is happening in the film, get total clarity on the character dynamics and such, but that does not mean that this first experience is weaker.
The atmosphere and aesthetic that director and screenwriter Na Hongjin builds up is incredibly immersive and enchanting and even if I don't always have a full grasp of exactly what is going on, I lose myself in the film completely. Some scenes in the second half - Such as those involving the shaman Il-Gwang (Hwang Jungmin) - Are so wildly crazy and unforgiving that some of the audience will give up. It's a shame, because if you go along for the ride and surrender to the fun and originality, it really pays off in the end.
Despite the fact that the film is almost 160 minutes long, it in no way feels drawn out or tough, but the tension is constantly sky high and in large parts of the film you really sit on pins and needles waiting for the next development. Visually, it does not disappoint either. Cinematographer Hong Kyungpyo has previously shot gorgeous films such as Sea Fog, Mother and Snowpiercer and here goes all in with the rainy, foggy and ghostly mountain environments. It's an endlessly eerie place, but you don't want to leave.
The constantly fascinating characters probably also contribute a lot to that. Kwak's police officer is further proof that South Koreans have an extremely unsympathetic image of the country's police officers, but despite being clumsy and slightly incompetent, he never becomes some sort of simplistic caricature or parody. The acting he delivers is truly impressive and the portrayal of the growing desperation is flawless. Kunimura and Hwang also give really strong performances, but the sharpest is Chun Woohee in a role that you should know as little as possible about.
In terms of horror, I think the film is very reminiscent of Robert Egger's masterful The Witch in how it slowly and confidently builds pure terror that crawls under one's skin, but the few times the violence completely explodes, nothing is held back. That arrangement makes The Wailing hit very deep and hard, and I have a feeling it will be a long time before it completely lets go of me. A fantastic film, simply.
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
Can’t help, but have mixed feelings about it. I feel like some of the meaning behind the movie got lost, or it’s my lack of faith in real life that prevents me from seeing it. I truly loved the dive into human weaknesses and doubts, lack of assuredness, prejudice that comes from fear and to what length one is willing to go to protect what’s dear to him. Then there is the supernatural element that speaks about faith, and I just don’t buy any of it. The movie just reminded me why I don’t believe in the first place - highly doubt this was the goal.
I feel like the movie tries to present that Jong Goo’s closure could have been different if he made a different choice at the end, but would it? And why would he make a different choice, when the whole situation was basically set as a pure luck scenario. I ended the movie with the thought - humans are powerless in the presence of the supernatural, with no evidence of truth, one can only rely on luck, that they trusted the right side.
That said, I still believe the movie was great. As someone who is not the biggest fan of long films, this one was an enjoyable ride from the beginning till the end, and it did not drag at all.
The performance of the whole cast was stellar, especially Kim Hwan Hee, whose acting gave me chills more than once and Kunimura Jun who convinced me to both pity and fear him depending on the scene.
Overall, I would highly recommend it. The story is excellently paced, the hints and explanations of the events keep making you guess about everyone’s motives and the source of the true evil. The cinematography will awe you. It does not rely on cheap jump scares, rather building the atmosphere that allows you to explore human’s nature and the horror that might be hidden.
Was this review helpful to you?
The movie that never started...(SPOILER FREE)
The movie is : Police goes to house of the culprit, finds evidence that he is the culprit but since they are too shocked to react about it today, they just go back home, have dinner and come back the next day to catch the culprit only to find that the culprit has already burnt all the evidence.Police : Wheres the evidence?
Culprit : Burnt
Police : Where ?
Culprit : Kitchen
Police : Why would u do that?? leave the town right now, I can't stand you : (
The setting was so dark. Like, I know its supposed to be horror movie, but its so dark that you can't even see the ghost, how come its scary. lol.
This movie is full of cringe and pathetic dialogues, specially the acting of the little girl. It infuriated me so much that about 9999 times I felt like jumping into the movie and punching the actors.
The devil looks like a 3 year old's photoshop.
About 40 minutes into the movie I wondered when the movie would would actually start. Well, it never did. The movie ended from the 1st minute. I just did not realise. Google the movie, and just read the plot if you are too curious, don't waste your time watching the movie.
I totally understand why this movie is not popular, because, most people who realised how pathetic this movie is did a really good job in not recommending it to others. So, yea, DO NOT WATCH IT. Its not worth your precious time.
Was this review helpful to you?
Tentang Kutukan, atau Serangan Astral?
Sejujurnya saya agak lupa bagaimana alur cerita dari horror yang satu ini karena saya sudah lama menontonnya, yakni pada tahun 2020. Film ini bergenre horror namun menurutku lebih banyak ke arah misteri karena sejujurnya pada awalnya saya agak bingung apakah ini tentang terror, kutukan atau serangan mahluk astral ; kenyataannya menurutku ini lebih mengarah ke kutukan yang dilakukan oleh seseorang yang memuja setan. Cerita berfokus ke seorang polisi bernama Jong Goo bersama keluarganya, kutukan terfokus pada anaknya - walaupun bukan hanya anaknya yang terkena kutukan. Ada beberapa jump-scare dan beberapa bentuk mahluk astral ditampilkan di sini, ada gambaran mahluk yang tidak enak dilihat oleh mata dan scene-scene yang punya nuansa menegangkan. Di awal saya kurang begitu suka karena menampilkan adegan yang tidak senonoh bahkan menurut saya tidak perlu ditampilkan di sana. Secara cerita mungkin horror ini menarik, namun entah kenapa ada yang kurang menurutku, tapi variabel x tersebut saya tidak bisa menjelaskannya. Review ini ditulis dengan sisa ingatanku terhadap film ini, karena filmnya menurutku kurang berkesan, aku hanya memasukannya ke list karena saya menyimpan file ini di hard-disk drive saya ; saat itu saya menontonnya bersama teman saya, berdua.Was this review helpful to you?
