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.