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Incredibly slow movie
A first observation is that it is past two hours long. The time is justifiable to help us better connect with the MC family and understand the village culture. For me, most of the scenes felt like just clips of the village, no explanation let me better understand the situation before the direction had us diving into its issues.The characters aren't really loveable. I didn't feel the appeal to empathize with them. Or even pay attention to the movie while it was playing. I got really bored. But I appreciated not getting jump-scared by a whole bunch of random, ugly, dirty zombies that yeet out of nowhere.
If you have bad attention, this may not be your favorite film. If you enjoy films that english or literature classes would use to admire the literacy art- this is the one for you. You'll have so many parts to gawk over when you realize how your points have connected.
Another thing is that it was hard to understand who's the "good" guy or the "bad guy"
So I watched an explanation... instead of rewatching the movie- it's ridiculously long.
If you want to know... then keep reading? Because it's going to be a spoiler.
The Japanese old man - Bad. He is the devil. The taking photos.
Strange woman in a white dress - good. She set up protection for the families. When families are tempted with fear, they break the protection and acted with the Japanese man's intentions.
Shaman - bad. Working in cahoots with the Japanese evil. has a box of photos. Also removed the white dress lady's protection.
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Confusing mess
Great production values but.....Spoiled by characters doing stupid things, getting scared of nothing, not communicating properly and running in circles for most of the movie. This applies not only to "good guys" but also to "bad guys", the entire plot makes little sense when considered from bad guys perspective as well. Clearly the focus here was to throw plot twists at the audience without much logic binding them together.
The movie is also sacrilegious. It felt like the author tried to mindlessly throw random references to buddhism, christianity and other religions without much knowledge or depth in them. Example: in the final scene where the antagonist revealed himself looking like oni from japanese mythology, with stigmata on his hands (suggesting he's a christian saint) and calling himself a devil while making photos with old style camera I couldn't help but laugh.
There were many other moments in the series that were supposed to be scary but ended up laughable (like the "zombie" fight scene, seriously, wtf was that? Bunch of armed guys can't deal with a limping dude trying to bite them?).
Ultimately this title is more confusing then scary. What made me keep watching is desire to solve the underlying mystery behind it all, only to have a messed up ending that provided more questions then answers. I've read some theories online and all of them feel stretched and not at all convincing, also the director apparently admitted in some interview he made the movie confusing on purpose.
"The Wailing" fails as both horror and mystery, but thanks to good cinematography and direction it succeeds at giving some one time thrills.
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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.
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Interesting Korean folk horror, uneven pacing and tone
A film that's hard for me to gauge, there's some very good things and a lot of middling stuff. To begin with, the camerawork is pretty good, the countryside and village lovely, even if you can feel a slight lack of budget in the scarcity of different settings that take advantage of the natural surroundings.The little girl's performance is impressive and far superior to the rest of the actors, with the possible exception of the old Japanese man. The rest of the cast are far too over-the-top at times, especially during the "action" scenes, which are a tad amateurish and hardly believable (some of the supporting characters roll around on the floor for no reason at all).
There's a palpable desire to inject tension through excessive shouting and melodrama.
However, this doesn't go down well with the film's rather unpolished pace, which is crammed with one crime scene after another in the first hour, then much slower in the second, with no real justification for it. There's not much ( as far as I'm concerned ) atmosphere here, and I felt very little tension or anxiety. What does not quite work is that the detective aspect ultimately has very little importance for the characters themselves, even if as far as the audience is concerned, we are left in doubt right up to the last minute, but more by the limp mechanical storytelling than by any real thirst to discover the mystery.
The long, ecstatic shamanic exorcism scene is worth mentioning, though, as it's a real blast. The contrast between the shaman's showmanship and the Japanese old man's more primordial rite (beautiful white chickens and a team of musicians for the former, rather rustic black chickens and somewhat primitive drum beats for the latter) encourages us to see a duality at work, despite the fact that the ending leads us to understand that the two were in cahoots.
Unfortunately, there's far too much inconceivable idiocy (in their choices and reactions) on the part of the characters, and many of the events that unfold only happen because people don't talk to each other, and the role of the angel-ghost girl is literally a bad deus ex machina who only exists because she chooses not to interact with the scenario until she's called upon (and so she lets a lot of people die without any real justification).
That said, it's a twist I really like, but the execution is really messy.
There are several potential films in this feature, as evidenced by the total absence of the slightly black humorous tone of the beginning, which evaporates completely without having any weapons powerful enough to compensate for this absence, the action being limp and ham-fisted and the horrific side quite non-existent, as the misfortunes fall mainly on tertiary characters, apart from the protagonist's daughter. Despite all this, I don't consider it too long (even if the final scenes are far too artificial in their build-up to suspense), and I was gripped right up to the conclusion.
It just didn't stay in the oven long enough, and the main ingredients should have been rebalanced.
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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.
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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.
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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?
