Title: The Wailing
AKA: Gokseong
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Origin: Korea
Release date: May 12, 2016
Cast: Kwak Do Won, Hwang Jung Min, Kunimura Jun, Chun Woo Hee and Kim Hwan
Hee.
Jong Goo (Kwak Do
Won) is small time police officer in the rural village Goksung. He lives there
with his wife, mother-in-law and daughter Hyo Jin (Kim Hwan Hee). One morning
he gets a phone call about a murder that has happened in that same village, and
when arriving at the scene, he is met with the horrific sight of an entire
family slaughtered. The killer, the father and head of the family, is sitting
shaking and covered in burned spots all around his body. Soon another murder of
the same type happens in the village, and it is said to be an outbreak of some
sort.
Jong Goo starts
hearing rumors around the village, about the ‘Japanese man’ who happened to
come to the village when it all started. After checking out his house, Jong Goo
and his partner are shocked to find Hyo Jin’s shoe in the house. And when he
questions Hyo Jin, he noticed that the once shy and smiley girl is now swearing
and threatening to murder everyone. The scared mother-in-law calls in a shaman
to cure the daughter, but the paranoid Jong Goo believes the Japanese man has
something to do with it and decides to take care of it…
I have a hard time
deciding whether I like this movie or not. It has so much Asia in this that it
became another one of those movies which I have no idea what happened. I mean
it’s not hard to follow, they do keep you in the loop, but I don’t understand
it. You would usually get a sense of what the meaning of a 2+ hours long movie
is about, but at the end I felt empty. I wasn’t scared or shocked. I was a bit
sad, but I have no idea what the movie theme is. Like if it was a scare movie,
it was too well written, and if it was moral-type movie, I didn’t catch it. I
don’t understand what I was watching. Maybe I am too thick? Considering people
were talking so positively about it, I really don’t understand it.
The movie as a
general is well-written, well-dialogued, and really beautifully made. The cast
was great, and even the twist was good. Besides that, I have nothing. I really
felt like a blob.
☆☆☆☆ / 4 out of 5 stars
♥♥♥ / 3 out of 5 hearts
