Did you watch any of the South Korean films available on Netflix during out film festival? Here is Part One of our reviews of the films. If you didn’t see any of them maybe this will have you heading over to Netflix to sample them!
WOOCHI THE DEMON SLAYER – Review by Holly Smith
‘Woochi The Demon Slayer’ is a 2009 film written and directed by Choi Dong Hoon.
Long ago, powerful wizards were entrusted with the task to guard earth and its inhabitants from evil demons that were imprisoned many years ago. The demons can be controlled by a magic pipe that was confiscated by said wizards, so human and wizard-kind alike are able to live their peaceful lives separately. That is, until the demons manage to escape from their prison to earth. This leaves only one option – the wizards must descend to earth to protect the very vulnerable mankind…
Fast forward and the battle between wizards and demons is on-going. It is now that we are introduced to the young, arrogant womanizer of a wizard named Woochi (Kang Dong Won). Rather than learn the Taoist ways of his masters, he concerns himself will wreaking havoc on humans and getting into all sorts of fights and scrapes with his bumbling sidekick friend Chonrangyi (Yu Hae Jin).
One day, Jeon Woochi and Chonrangyi are framed for the murder of their master (Baek Yun Shik) by a powerful rival wizard named Hwadam (Kim Yun Seok). This leads a fellow trio of supposedly wise senior wizards to imprison Woochi and Chonrangyi in paintings for 500 years as punishment for their crimes.
Now, in modern day Seoul, the three senior wizards still have not managed to capture the roaming demons that even seem to be growing in strength as time passes. They set out to free Woochi and Chonrangyi from their two dimensional prisons in an aim to enlist their help. The evil Hwadam is still present and also waits from the pair to be released as Woochi holds half of the demon-controlling pipe. Will the two mischievous individuals be able to prove their innocence, defeat Hwadam and the demons once and for all? Or will they find modern day temptations too hard to resist?
GOOD POINTS
Kang Don Wan plays his character well. He is the classically charismatic troublemaker and quite the anti-hero. He never hides the fact that he is only ever out for himself and his own gains in any given situation. He teases the poor Chonrangyi and flirts constantly with a certain woman that he desires. Despite all this, you remain firmly on his side.
The three hopeless senior wizards responsible for imprisoning the two provide a lot of laughs and are great purveyors of slapstick. It’s a brand of comedy that can sometimes come out slightly cheesy, but it’s not so with these actors.
Chonrangyi is actually a dog masquerading as a human. The only thing he longs for in life is to be made into a true human, which Woochi can actually do for him. The problem lies with Woochi’s willingness to do so (he seems to want to remain as superior over Chonrangyi and keeping him as a beast maintains this dynamic). Yu Hae Jin plays this difficult role so well. He really takes on the canine characteristics and makes them his own. He is another great source of comedy, as well as being incredibly sweet and endearing.
The concept of the wizards being imprisoned inside paintings is very unique and the way that they would often use unusual ways of travelling, such as through television screens, was very interesting. The CGI was also seamless in these parts, which is very cool.
I was glad that the latter parts of the film took place in modern day. It makes it a little more relatable for the audience and it is always fun to see characters from the past attempt to adjust to our strange contemporary ways!
BAD POINTS
In some parts, I felt there were far too many cuts between shots and it would just leave you a bit disorientated. It is almost like looking at something whilst blinking repeatedly, it makes you feel quite dizzy! You know shot transitions are done well when you do not notice them, so the fact that I did enough for it to annoy me a little does not bode well!
The film started very slowly and only started to really move after the two were freed from the respective paintings. Of course, everything needs to be set and the characters need to be established, but the change from such a slow to a relatively fast pace did not sit well.
Even though the CGI was very good for the most part during this film, the qualities of the demon characters themselves were slightly lacking. It has to be considered that this is not a Hollywood film, so the budget is probably quite limited when compared, but it was still quite disappointing.
A lot of the narrative was a bit watery. There were a few elements that were introduced, but not completely explained or finished. As said, these were only a few factors of the entire piece, but it can still leave you with a rather unsatisfied feeling by the end.
OVERALL
This film is not without its flaws. One of the main being that it had a very strong foundation for an interesting story, but this opportunity was not grasped fully by the makers and results in something that may simply leave viewers perplexed and unsure.
Despite this, the cast for this film a quite solid and each takes on their character very well. This film is one that will have you smiling and quite dazzled by the concept of wizardry. It takes a more “traditional” stance on the popular genre, so it is quite different from the Harry Potter franchise and similar works.
This film is recommended for people who would are in the mood for a laidback comedic affair with a slice of magic action. It is not one for someone who wishes for an intelligent narrative that will evoke amazement or deep thought, but it is definitely one for fans of supernatural and fantasy films in general.
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THE SWORD WITH NO NAME – Review by Lisa Griggs
Director Kim Yong-gyun has created a surprisingly beautiful romantic drama with “Wanee and Junah” and his horror film “The Red Shoes”. “The Sword with no Name” surely does make you wonder if it was done by the same director. The story itself is more K-drama then movie but affectionately crafted in its storyline. This film isn’t one of the best Korean movies to watch but it fills the time where you want a love story with epic fight scenes and fantasy shot sword clashing.
“The Sword with no Name” is a film about a young women Ja-yeong who is to eventually be the new queen. But her rebellious side wants freedom and she travels to sea only to meet our hero Moo-myeong, who immediately falls in love with her. But, as in all romantic movies, the fight for love is never straight forward as she declines her feelings for him because of her duty to be queen. Once queen, her inspiring forms and peace meetings with westerners who are exploring more of Korea at this time. This gains enemies to the young queen and so Moo-my ring who knows about the threat to his queen becomes a palace guard so he can protect her and be by her side as the threats and enemies start coming full-fold.
The story itself is very conceptual and moving in ways of romance and what people who do for love. But, the attention which makes you want to watch this movie is quite slow and boring at times and even the fantasy fights seems are somewhat strange. The film’s style is so uneven that we also get some over-the-top fantasy fights that absolutely don’t fit into the framework of the movie.
There a however some good scenes in the film as well as a few actors who do their job pretty well. Our hero who is Jo Seung-woo, also in “Love Phobia”, does an extremely good narration with his script and personality which is quite nice to see when everything else about the film can be iffy and odd. Park Soo-ae (“Athena” and “Midnight FM”),who is our Queen Moo-myeong, gives a good representation of the historical character and her ambition to give the best she has was also quite nice to view.
This film is a good one if you like a romantic and heart-wrenching story, learn a little about the Joseon period of Korea or enjoy the fantasy flying sword fights, but other then that. The film lacks real imagery and editing, it deserving more then it’s credited in the long run. Reviewing it has been troubling because there are mixed reviews out there with others liking or hating it. Looking at the good and bad points about the film itself, I would rate it 5 out of 10 since the good and bad are about 50/50 through the whole film.
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JOINT SECURITY AREA (JSA) no longer available on Netflix.com – Review by Ella Kaill
Joint Security Area (JSA), directed by Park Chan-wook, was released in 2000 and was a huge hit in South Korea, being the highest grossing film in Korean film history at the time. The rest of the world took notice and now the film has ten global awards to its name.
The film deals with the tension between North Korea and South Korea, with one character even going so far as to say, “Think of it as a dry forest; one tiny spark and the whole thing is destroyed.” The main story in this film follows a shooting incident that takes place within the demilitarized zone (DMZ) on the border between the two countries. It is decided that investigators from either side of the border will have a vested interest to catch out the other country, hence, a ‘neutral’ investigator is brought in. Major Sophie Jang (Lee Young Ae), a Swiss-Korean, arrives to investigate the fatal incident. However, she is told that she does not have to search for who did it, but must find out why they did it; the murderer, Lee Soo-hyuk (Lee Byung-hun), is in custody already after being found at the scene of the crime. Soo-hyuk and the soldier he’s positioned with befriend two North Korean soldiers, Oh Kyeong-pil (Song Kang-ho) and Jung Woo-jin (Shin Ha-kyun), which is a terribly dangerous act for them to embark upon, even when their bunkers are right on the border of the two countries, literally. The soldiers bond over cigarettes and new ‘yankee’ inventions that Soo-hyuk brings from the South. Unfortunately the friendship cannot last, and a gritty scene in the North Korean soldier’s bunker, brimming with high-running emotions, forges the end of it.
This main story-line, which follows the varying emotions of the soldiers, is accompanied by slightly less significant storytelling; plots include the struggles of Major Sophie Jang and the intense pressure that the only witness of the shooting is cracking under. Yes, the film is a military film, however, this is not to say it’s all commands and guns and violence. There are commands, and guns, and violence, but they do not make up the entire substance of the film. JSA is much more a psychologically demanding film than a gun parade. For this reason, it would no doubt appeal to fans of action films, but would also appeal to those who aren’t.
The film itself had it’s own strange sense of beauty. It wasn’t an art film by any means but it managed to stray away from looking too clinical, as many army or sci-fi films tend to. When watching, the colours appear warm and compliment the warmth one might feel from seeing the four soldiers’ comradeship, even after they’ve been brought up believing they are mortal enemies. That is not to say that the film has any sugar coating; there is mild violence and the aforementioned ‘gritty’ scene is combined with a black sky and relentless rain, a cliché but important to the scene. Flawless acting throughout shows that the actors worked well with the dark plot-line to create much drama. One particularly chilling scene involved an incredible performance from Song Kang-ho, during which he blackly stated his unconditional love for Kim Jong- Il, North Korea’s leader at the time.
If you’re looking for a film that educates about the strained relationship between North Korea and South Korea, look elsewhere. Although JSA tells a story that does involve this tension, that’s all. It is weaved through the plot but no real history comes to the forefront of the film. On top of this, the story can get somewhat confusing sometimes; since the film switches between the present time and the time before the murder, sometimes events and characters can be confused with others.
I am pleased to say that the film ends on a rather endearing note. Some way into the film, a bunch of bumbling American tourists are taking a tour around the DMZ and one tourist snaps a picture, without permission. This picture comes onto the screen at the end and, by pure coincidence, it shows the four soldiers before they knew each other. If JSA sounds like your thing, why not check it out on Netflix? Don’t forget to come back and let us know what you thought!
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