'The Wailing (2016)' is an affair that sticks with you, leaving you to turn it over and over in your mind long after its credits have rolled. It's a constantly evolving experience, moving through several somewhat distinct acts defined only by your understanding of its plot's events. This is evidence of its keen awareness of its audience, as it is able to predict what you're thinking in order to set up a blindsiding reveal. A lot of the narrative is ambiguous, despite a fairly concrete end, and it makes for an extremely enigmatic watch, one in which your assumptions are always shifting and, somehow, never quite correct. When you think back on the piece, you realise how meticulously crafted it is right from the opening shot. It's exactly what it needs to be, even if it does sometimes seem slightly meandering and you can certainly feel its length. It's never even close to boring, constantly keeping you engaged and occasionally wrenching you to the edge of your seat. It's the kind of film that sneaks up on you; you don't realise your heart is in your mouth until it's too late. It's as much a mystery as it is a horror, but it's ultimately rather frightening. It has moments of wince-inducing gore, creepy imagery and unbearable tension but it's its overall effect that affects you the most. It's difficult to describe, really, but to say the picture is ominous is an understatement. Its only real flaw is the fact that some of its odd comedy, particularly in its earlier sequences, detracts ever-so-slightly from the sincerity of its narrative. Still, even this contributes to the story's decidedly off-kilter vibe. When it comes down to it, the thing is absolutely brilliant, a distinct and distinguished movie unlike most others of its kind. It gets under your skin and wriggles around for a long time. 8/10
Add a Review
-
Pjtaylor-96-1380448 January 2020
-
The Wailing opens with a quote from the bible. It is easy to forget this fact while watching most of the film, but at a certain point it becomes clear the purpose that quote served. It is almost like a warning: "if you are a religious person, this film will scare every part of you." This is where The Wailing works so well. As a religious parable, it overcomes its lengthy running time and tonal imbalance, to deliver an often funny but truly terrifying film.
When a mysterious stranger moves to a small village in South Korea, the village becomes plagued by sickness. The police think a wild mushroom is to blame, but police officer Jong-goo thinks it may have something to do with the stranger. He meets a woman who gives him some information about this mysterious man, and slowly begins to fall down a rabbit hole that consumes his life. When his daughter starts to show signs of the sickness, it gets personal and he must figure out who to trust and who to avoid.
The director, Hong-jin Na, struggles to find a good tonal balance. At times pitch perfect and at other times all over the place, the tone struggles to stay consistent. For the first third of the film, it is primarily a funny movie with briefs bursts of depravity and violence. The comedy works well and I found myself laughing a number of times. Then when the horrific imagery would come up it was sudden and effective. There was a good balance here that gets lost in the second act. The comedy becomes more slapstick and does not fit with the rest of the film. The characters also become over-the-top and act in exaggerated ways very different from how they were introduced. This middle section also has some moments of unintentional humor. One example sees a man struck by lightening and another has the caller ID for a shaman come up on the phone as "Shaman".
Fortunately it finds a good balance again in the third act, but smartly switches it up from the first act. It becomes intense and terrifying with a few moments of comedy to offset the horror. And what a terrifying last act it is. As everything starts to unfold, the audience gains a new appreciation of the rest of the film and starts to reinterpret certain scenes. The only problem is that a few of these scenes only made sense once the film ended. Rather than feeling natural and fitting in as the story progressed, they required the ending to actually make sense.
At 2 hours and 36 minutes, the film is just too long. The middle portion of the film is where this could have been resolved. The shaman had too much screen time performing various rituals that ended up not being very important. There was also a 'zombie' scene that felt awkward and didn't fit in with the rest of the movie. It seemed as though they wanted to put a zombie in the film just because of their growing popularity. This scene also brings in a number of random characters that serve no purpose in the rest of the film.
Despite a few scenes with the previously mentioned overacting, the acting generally speaking is fantastic. The father tasked with solving whatever is happening to his daughter, conveys the terror and hatred he is building up with an intense persona he carries throughout the film. A priest in training who comes in to give advice on what the father should do is equally effective. He brings a concerned and innocent quality to the terror that will ultimately happen. But it is the young daughter who gets sick, that really shines. Channeling her inner Linda Blair, she emphatically delivers horrible, dirty lines that no child should ever say. Her performance is truly terrifying as you watch the hatred in her eyes slowly take over.
As the film comes to an end, the religious overtones become clearer. Locusts attack an individual. White and black are used to suggest character's true nature. And it is in these scenes where the film truly shines. By slowly unveiling the real nature of certain characters, the last 45 minutes of the movie will change your perspective on the whole thing. Every few minutes you will switch sides when trying to determine whom to trust and only when the big reveal comes do you realize how detailed the setup to get there was. The reveal really puts a twist on everything that led up to it and the film ultimately becomes about the horrors of putting your faith in the wrong people.
The Wailing (2016) Directed by: Hong-jin Na Screenplay by: Hong-jin Na Starring: Woo-hee, Jeong-min Hwang, So-yeon Jang, and Do Won Kwak Run Time: 2 hours 36 minutes -
kjihwan17 September 2016Director Na, Hong-jin catapulted himself into the Korean directing elite with his much lauded debut movie, The Chaser, back in 2008. His follow-up, The Yellow Sea, received more tepid response, but there was little doubt that here was a movie-maker who had the potential to be spoken of in the same sentence as Bong Joon-ho and Park Chan-wook. His latest, The Wailing, starts with more than a passing resemblance to Bong's masterpiece, Memories of Murder. There's a series of grisly, unexplained murders in a backward-looking (although in The Wailing's case contemporary) countryside, which is then investigated by ordinary cops – more put-upon locals in uniform than law enforcers – increasingly out of their depth. What appears first as simple murders of passion begins to spread across the village, while an increasing number of people fall victim to a violent – and violence-inducing – fever, including the young daughter of one of the policemen on the case, Jong- gu. A portly every-man and a doting father, he is bewildered by the severity of the crimes (especially so in a hitherto tranquil countryside) and heart-broken by his daughter's sudden affliction. Desperate to find a cure, Jong-gu (played by Kwak, Do-won, a Na alumnus from Yellow Sea) and his friends latch onto the fact that the fever seemingly started after an unknown Japanese man appeared in the area. The more they delve into the stranger (Jun Kunimura, best known for getting decapitated by Lucy Liu in Kill Bill), the more Jong-gu realizes that the situation may belong more in the realms of the unnatural. Enlisting the help of a charismatic shaman, Jong-gu goes to the extremes to find a solution. Fittingly for the fishing motif that's so prevalent in the film, however, the more he bites at the problem, the more he seems to be ensnared.
It's been a while since a Korean film had this kind of craftsmanship and artistic control to match its ambition. In many ways The Wailing is the true successor to the class of 2003 – when A Tale of Two Sisters and Oldboy as well as the aforementioned Memories of Murder were released – with how confidently the visuals are displayed, the themes are interwoven, and the story unfolds. The forebodingly beautiful cinematography nods at Kubrick, the acting is exemplary (including a worryingly remarkable turn from the child actress Kim, Hwan-hee as Jong-gu's daughter), and most of all the atmosphere of escalating horror that Na captures is impressively unsavoury indeed. The film is a bold departure (or throwback, depending on how you look at it) for Korean cinema in its heavy emphasis on the occult, a theme more associated in the country with the well-worn moralism of its ghost stories and the oft-parodied rituals of harlequin-esque shamans. At well over two and a half hours, The Wailing is a hefty movie, but with its potent mixture of procedural mystery, black comedy and a prevailing sense of dread, it commands attention masterfully for much of the duration.
The one drawback for the film is a significant one that takes the shine off what could otherwise have been a landmark movie. During the course of the film Na throws a number of questions and macguffins up in the air. Who or what is causing the fever? Can the shaman be trusted? Is the Japanese stranger a victim of xenophobia? Who is the nameless girl always hovering around the crime scenes? Or is it all just collective hallucination caused by bad mushrooms? The Wailing takes its twists and turns, apparently answering the questions and overturning expectations. But then it keeps going, reopening closed plot strands and even downright contradicting itself on occasions. It soon becomes apparent that Na isn't so much interested in telling a self-contained story than an exercise in audience-baiting. All of the elements in the film which were so compelling and enjoyable are not allowed to coalesce together in the end, and the actions and motives of the major characters – the Japanese man, Jong-gu and his daughter, the shaman, the nameless girl – are ultimately rendered disparate, abstract and illogical. The ending is neither closed nor open-ended, but rather wilfully indeterminate, and it's tempting to think that Na is applying the film's fishing motif to the audience. Whether it's an appropriately auteur thing to do, or a self-defeating display of directorial indulgence, is perhaps best left to the individual viewer to decide. -
oddeveneven10 January 2017Some movies have a coherent plot that is told in a non-straightforward fashion, or that is open to several interpretations, or that leaves out some parts requiring the audience to fill-in (e.g. an open end), and possibly this filling-in can be done in more than one way. These movies require several viewings and considerable thought to make sense.
After watching The Wailing for the first time, I had the impression that it was this kind of movie. However, after watching it again, pondering it, and then reading and watching attempts by various people to interpret/explain it, I have come to a different conclusion. Namely, this movie does not have a coherent underlying plot. No matter how you shift the pieces of the puzzle in an attempt to recreate a coherent narrative, some pieces will never fit together, and not due to your incompetence, but because the underlying story is - possibly intentionally, possibly not - fundamentally inconsistent. It's like one of those optical illusions or Escher drawings that appear to describe a physical object, but in fact don't make physical sense.
Accordingly, whether one enjoys this movie or not boils down to whether one can be content with a movie that is technically well-made (cinematography, acting, costumes, etc.), but (a) its plot makes no sense, and (b) it is told in a deceptive way as to lure you into thinking that the plot would make sense if only you gave the matter sufficient thought, thus leaving you with a lingering, irritating feeling of dissatisfaction and confusion.
And maybe this is precisely the point of the movie: rather than telling a story, its purpose is to instill in the audience a feeling of confusion in the face of a sequence of events that almost, but not quite, makes sense. Much like life at times, no? -
SilentEyes_15 September 2016I want to start this review with saying that I am not completely against jump scares. They play integral part of horror movies, but when a movie mostly relies on them and is not supported with great story, I am always left displeased. What makes The Wailing so special is that there are almost no jump scares at all in this film. Instead, we, the viewers, are taken through a story rich with mystery, great characters and their struggles, dark atmosphere with well designed and amazingly crafted horror scenes that make your blood run cold. Also, in addition the movie carries a great subtext left for the viewer to question, find evidence and interpret it. You can feel that the director took some time and did some research to give us as much real horror experience as possible. One might find The Wailing a bit boring because the film is a slow burner and not constructed as most of modern horror films, or might find the film too long (running time 2h 36min) but if you are patient man it will pay off by the end.
Who says that the horror genre is dead. You just have to look beyond those cash grab mainstream horror films with wide releases and you might find some hidden gems. -
kosmasp21 June 2020Watching this, quite a few things may confuse you. The story is not easy at all. It is about good and evil though. It is about how we perceive the world and what we make of it. It is about many things, a lot of you may experience and see, that the person next to you may not see.
The movie is made to be watched more than once. I had heard about the Wailing and how good it supposedly is - well now I can leave the supposedly part away. It is as good as people say it is. And it is another example of south korean filmmaking that not few see as a powerhouse in the world right now (some may argue it has been for quite some time now). This movie is another example for just that.
It is also a movie about prejudice, about how small our world is and how we react to an outside "influence". How things collapse and what society is capable of ... again so many things to discover here. Now that being said, it doesn't mean you will like the movie. Or that if you don't like it, it doesn't mean you have no taste in movies. That is the great thing about films. We all have different tastes and we all value things different. You may just want to see explosions. And that's more than fine. But it's not what you'll get here ... not for the weak hearted or squeamish just to be clear though ... this is brutal .. to watch! -
THE WAILING is the third film in the career of Korean director Na Hong-jin and it's a very different beast to his first two, THE CHASER and THE YELLOW SEA. Both of those are among my favourite films of all times thanks to their breakneck action and intense thrills, whereas THE WAILING is much more old-fashioned, a slow-burning piece of atmospheric horror that's all about the mood and mystique rather than intensity and thrilling action.
The film has a rural setting and sees the typically inept Korean police force attempting to make sense of weird deaths and the weird murderers committing them. Before long it becomes clear that an old Japanese hermit, played by yakuza film regular Jun Kunimura, is somehow connected to the deaths. What follows is two-and-a-half hours of sustained horror involving possession, curses, disease, rituals, and even some zombie mayhem. Some viewers might find the slow pace off-putting, but I found this film rewarding right up until the twist-upon-twist climax. It's exceptionally slow and features some stand-out sequences, like the zombie attack and the endless ritual. The performances are neatly-judged and the mystery keeps you guessing right until the end. It's a very interesting film, one made to reward repeat viewing. -
A_Different_Drummer7 December 2016SPOILER: Have seen a lot of films, reviewed a lot of films but this extraordinary two and a half hour technically-perfect humanistic horror film from one of the finest writer/directors in the business (auteur of I SAW THE DEVIL) was something of a cipher.
The closest analog I can suggest in David Lynch's 2001's Mulholland Drive, yet another technically perfect, humanistic, suspense opus which keeps you captivated for its full length, yet has you walking out of the theatre shaking your head and wondering what exactly you just saw? Both film-makers understand the "big secret" of story telling which is, if you can present your story in such a way that the viewer feels he or she is sharing the experience with the protagonist, you can tell any story you like and the viewer will just keep going.
I will not even try to provide an explanation for what THE WAILING means, other than to re-quote the writer/director himself who, in numerous interviews on his film, said enigmatically "I began to wonder about the nature of God -- what if he was not always good?" Recommended on many levels. As entertainment, as a puzzle, and as a clinic in how to make a film that engages ... and just won't let go. -
I think this movie was worth watching. Can't say it's bad. But it's unnecessarily too long, you'll see adult men acting like little girls in the face of fear. there are a lot of unanswered questions in the end, and the whole thing basically doesn't make much sense. To be honest, I thinks most people are giving this movie such high ratings just because it's Korean.
-
FlorianLaur28 November 2021Wow. I've seen dozens of Korean movies, but the Wailing easily makes my top 3.
Sadly, it seems that many people watched this movie and didn't understand it or are too used to American cinema (judging by the many bad reviews).
This is a very personal movie for the director. He spent a lot of time in the village as a child, visiting his grandma. And he lost a lot of people to unnatural causes, pushing him to make this movie with the question: Why?
The movie opens with a quote from the bible and this holds a lot of meaning for what we see. It's a movie about faith. It's a movie that has a lot of twists and a story that may not seem easy to follow, but actually, you just have to pay attention to it.
Some wrote that they actually fell asleep or that this is a boring movie. I have to disagree. I saw it twice now and although I did think it takes some time to kick into gear the first time, I have to say it really doesn't the second time around.
Korean movies, unlike Americans spend time to set an atmosphere and flesh out characters. That's what this movie is doing for almost two hours (Hollywood says todays audience is too stupid to pay attention that long).
The movie has a very strong atmosphere from the start. It spends some time to show us the idyllic landscapes, forests and hills surrounding the village (the name of the village is the same word as "to wail" in Korean).
The acting is also top-notch, especially Jun Kunimura and the young girl stand out for me. I know Jun mainly as a Yakuza character, but he can really terrify you with his performance here!
It shows our hero as someone who's far from that. He isn't the smartest, he certainly isn't the bravest. But ironically, his faith in rumors and stories are making him the one who stumbles upon the trace of the stranger before everyone else does...
Said stranger can be seen as a metaphor for the formerly mentioned Bible quote: It's about the betrayal and resurrection of Jesus, who falls because his disciples lacked faith - the same fate that befalls our hero. He didn't have enough faith.
Ironically, the brave character (the deacon) has too much faith, which leads to his demise.
Ultimately, "The Wailing" is a movie about the battle of good versus evil and how there isn't always a clear answers to the question "why" or "why me"? It doesn't deserve any of the hate, because it is a really clever, well-made movie with no real flaws (in my opinion). Don't be discouraged to watch it by the negative reviews, those critics either didn't understand the film or simply are too used to Marvel fast food. -
paul_haakonsen15 October 2016"The Wailing" (aka "Goksung") is a South Korean pseudo-horror movie, and that alone already counts well in favor for the movie, as South Korea has a long, and most impressive, track record for making horror movies. The movie runs a bit over two and a half hours, but it actually manages to remain interesting and captivating throughout the course of this time frame.
The story is about a strange disease that spreads in a small rural settlement in South Korea. This disease causes rashes and blisters, and eventually drives the infected to kill those he or she loves in blind rage. A local policeman becomes involved in the case and finds himself deep in a very strange mystery, which involves supernatural elements and it is a race against time to find the culprit and the source of this bizarre sickness.
I will say that the story is good and interesting, especially because director Hong-jin Na managed to build up the movie in such a way that the audience is given bits and pieces of information throughout the course of the movie, and thus keeps the audience in the dark and trying to put the pieces together themselves and trying to figure out who is the cause of it all.
And just when you think you have it all figured out, something happens and the movie takes an unforeseen turn, which just further keeps the audience on edge and trying to make sense of it all. That was a nice thing in the movie, because it kept it from being predictable, and it forces the audience to actually do some thinking throughout the course of the movie.
The acting in the movie was quite good, which is a common trait seen in South Korean movies, so there were no surprise there. As always it is an enjoyment to sit down and watch another South Korean movie.
Without giving anything away, then I will say that just as I thought I had it all figured out, then the director opted for something else entirely towards the ending, and threw me fully of the trail. I had not seen that ending coming, not by a long shot. But, personally, I didn't care much for how the movie ended and the realization of what was really going on. It was just a bit too much, to far out there for my taste. Especially since the movie had been so good and intriguing up to that point. It just took a nosedive with that unveiling, and as such I am forced to rate the movie only a six out of ten stars rating.
That being said, don't get me wrong, because "The Wailing" really is a good movie, it is just that I didn't enjoy the ending in the least bit. But if you enjoy Asian movies and South Korean movies in particular, then "The Wailing" is a solid horror/mystery movie which definitely is worth watching. -
This will be the first review i'm writing, Because i'm enthralled by this piece of art. Gokseong is directed by Hong-jin Na who previously have made very fine movies like yellow sea and chaser. But the setting of this movie is different from those movies, It kind of felt like Memories of Murder in darker tone. This is the story of a village, where people are suffering from a mysterious diseases which seems like some kind of virus and this ends up killing them, and in the middle of somewhere a Japanese stranger seems to be involved in this. Now, i'm not going to say more than that about the story , and i suggest you to not watch the trailer which doesn't do justice to the movie and stay away from any possible spoiler. It is one of the best horror movies i have seen in long time, it doesn't have jump scares. But what this movie does, it slowly grows on you, you will be confused, conflicted, disgusted while watching this. Somewhere you will make a choice, a perspective to the way things are going and possibly will be wrong. So i strongly suggest you to watch this movie if possible in a secluded environment and if possible alone. P.S.- It has the what i think is the best exorcism scene shown in any movie.
-
jfgibson7325 March 2020Here is a movie that got a tremendous amount of praise from critics and viewers as being a memorable horror film. I thought it was well filmed and acted, especially the child actress. This might be the most intense performance a child actor has given on film. The story definitely made me care about the characters, and when it was over, I wanted to know more about what I had just watched. However, after taking time to reflect and review some of the interpretations that have been put out there, I've decided that The Wailing didn't quite meet my expectations. It was hard to follow, and most people seem to understand that the director wanted some things to be intentionally vague. But what bothered me is that I felt like the story kept introducing new plot points that didn't seem connected to what had come before. When I got to the end and saw what other people had to say about what was going on, it didn't do anything to deepen my appreciation of the movie. It's long, too, and it feels like it meanders, even if everything does somehow tie together at the end. I just didn't respond that strongly to it. I think some of the imagery will stick with me, but I don't feel like I enjoyed it enough to want to watch it back. I can't say that I don't recommend it, because obviously a lot of people really enjoyed it, I just didn't happen to be one.
-
antiraza31 May 2016I'll provide the dissenting opinion here.
(Spoilers follow, because I'm not sure how to articulate my dissatisfaction without talking about the story.)
I was a big fan of The Chaser, and went in with high expectations.
At the end of this experience, I'm left with many unanswered questions, and not the good kind. Not philosophical questions, not questions about symbolism. Instead, my questions are why we spent so darn long following threads that were ultimately little more than red herrings. Why the first third of the film was just burning time pretending to be a comedy and withholding the main plot? Why did the events in the film happen at all? What was the point of this entire exercise?
This is a whodunit with a dissatisfying who, because we don't have a WHY beyond 'crap happens, evil exists, deal with it.'
There is also a lot of genre confusion, and while other reviewers have labeled this a positive things, to me it just felt like a bunch of stuff tagged on for the sake of being tagged. Is this a possession/exorcism film? A zombie movie? A conspiracy thriller? A murder mystery? A comedy? It pulls from so many of the tropes that at the end of it I feel like I spent more time trying to figure out what film I was watching that just being able to watch the film.
So, a bunch of negative feedback so far, but you'll note I still gave the film a 5/10. Lots of great cinematic moments in here. The locations, design and cinematography are mostly very satisfying. There is one sequence in particular (the major exorcism) that was incredibly compelling. And despite my hate for all the comedy at the beginning of the film being part of the genre noise, it was funny and enjoyable. Also some great performances, in particular from the child actor.
Anyway, if you wanted to watch this film because you were a fan of The Chaser, go right ahead, just temper your expectations.
It doesn't have The Chaser's palpable sense of dread and power. This is not a particularly frightening, emotionally moving or satisfying film, but it's got some good moments that make the experience not a complete waste. -
s0hc4ht041 October 2016About 40 minutes into the movie, I stopped to look at how much time was left and was actually RELIEVED to see that there was still so much left. That's how engaging and interesting the story was for me.
Before watching the movie I read one review on here that said it was a "smorgasbord" of genres (it was a positive review), but it doesn't really feel like it. I mean, yes, I can see it, but the storytelling is so fluid and well written that the multiple genre aspects didn't feel out of place at all. It works. It works so well that I almost feel like it's redundant to point out that there are "so many genres."
I found the second half of this movie quite similar to The Witch. Not necessarily in terms of the storyline, but the pace, the severity, the terror. Both movies are quite psychological. But The Wailing delivers somewhat of a more complex storyline.
Cinematography was breathtaking. Jun Kunimura was ridiculous (in a good way). All the actors were on point. I'm not going to point out or mention "Asian horror" here (although, technically I just did I guess, lol). I just don't think that it's necessary to pigeonhole this movie into anything other than what it is; a great horror. -
SPOILER: This review is extremely difficult to pen without dropping spoilers, but I am going to try...
Na Hong-jin's The Chaser (2008) audaciously broke one of cinema's golden rules to heartbreaking effect. His sophomore effort The Yellow Sea (2010) is a pulsating rush of blood and bone. 6 years later comes The Wailing, a gruesome blend of different genres and it is near impossible to pigeonhole. Na Hong-jin has graduated to a whole new level with The Wailing, a smorgasbord of investigative procedural, humour, horror, supernatural, family drama, and near un-killable zombies.
Whether you are the filmmaker or the viewer, it can be really hard to start a film. No one sitting in the pitch-black cinema is your friend yet and the beginning of any film always feels like a forced act of intimacy for the viewer. A hooker can help. No, I don't mean a prostitute but a good first scene 😬. The Wailing opens with a verse from the Bible, Luke 24:38-39 and cuts to a scene of a forlorn man double hooking a worm before fishing from a boulder. The scene is beguiling, laden with an atmosphere of dread and your consciousness will immediately lock in the little noggin of information that his unusual act has a higher purpose. Two and a half hours later and after a post-movie long table discussion with 13 other animated persons and more than a day of further discussion on a WhatsApp chat group, I am wiser. The first scene of The Wailing is a blue-ribbon winner and so it goes for the rest of the film.
The big story is easy - a Japanese stranger (Jun Kunimura) arrives in a little village and soon a mysterious sickness starts to spread. Grisly murders ensue and a strange young woman (Chun Woo-Hee) and a bombastic shaman (Hwang Jung-Min) enter into the fray. A bumbling and lazy policeman (Kwak Do Won) is drawn in and he has to get to the crux of the mystery in order to save his daughter. It is the intricate workings of the plot that needs a lot of unpacking. Forget about the age-old Hollywood adage that a good film has a plot that is easily summarised. The last time I had so much fun dismantling and assembling back a movie was Inception!
The Wailing is a stupendous and sustained piece of masterful storytelling. It is loaded with frightful incidents and stuffed with mystifying characters. On top of that, it is genuinely terrifying as it preys on the goodness of ordinary people. God has seemingly excused Himself from the battleground as can be gleaned from a scene in which the church says it will not lift a finger to help. The story is compelling and riveting, and every twist, turn and outcome totally earned. The movie has a punishing runtime of 156 minutes not because of poor pacing, but because of the intricacies of the plot. There are plenty of bloody scenes for the gore-hounds but they are never ladled out to pump up a sagging plot. The plot never sags, not even for one instance. Na's use of music and sounds to heighten the suspense is brilliant. From plaintive tonal chords in the beginning to a full-blown thunderous "tong tong qiang" exorcism ritual, everything adds to the atmosphere of doom. Na has also achieved such sublime tonal shifts that I didn't even notice where I went from laughing out loud to pure heart-parked-in-my-mouth terror. The film is suffused with motifs, religious overtones and thematically rich. Even an innocuous scene of a young woman throwing stones has biblical weight. The storytelling is powerful and the twists perfectly angled into the story. So many times I had that "aha" feeling that told me I had the mystery figured out and the motivations of the characters down pat. But on hindsight, I realised the only thing I had figured out early is that this is one incredibly thought provoking piece of filmmaking. The Wailing practically roars through the final act delivering all manners of monstrosity and heartbreaking sadness with aplomb. The movie is long and rich, multilayered and satisfying. Prepare to be toyed, skewered, gutted, stabbed and get ready to be played like a violin.
I know this review is rubbish and ladened with hyperboles, but I did not exaggerate or embellish, and I did you a huge favour by remaining vague with the plot. Believe me, it is extremely hard for me to do that. I know good films when I see them. It is the great ones that are not easy to decide on. The Wailing is not a great film in the strictest sense but it earns its place on a shelf of illustrious films that invite so many good debates with like- minded minds. These are films that are impossible for you to stay shut-up and have everything explained in a few by-lines. These are films that will never leave your head long after they are done, and when you least expect it the tendrils of the narrative will rise up and wrap around your consciousness like tentacles. There are not many films on this particular shelf and all of them have become classics. I do not use the word "classic" lightly, but I believe The Wailing may well prove to be one. You know how I know? The movie left more questions than answers in my mind, but yet it was never a frustrating cinematic experience. It is such a wonderful mindfcuk! The year is not over yet, but I have a feeling I will not see another film of this caliber. Films of this type are rare and such superb rare films wail out to be watched and experienced. Experience this. -
myc497113 September 2016I can't stop thinking about this movie and it's been 24 hours since I've seen it. I find myself replaying the movie in my head over and over. I find myself reflecting on the themes that it tries to bring to the surface.
Easily, this goes down as one of the best horror movies I've watched. On the second thought, it's one of the best movies I had the pleasure of watching! It's smart, it's clever and it's beautiful! Words that you won't actually use to describe typical horror movies. What makes "GOKSUNG" transcend its genre is that it has so many layers but each one is as potent as the other. Like an onion, some audience will walk away only having seen the outer layer but would feel as satisfied as the next audience who was able to see through all its layers.
I was taken aback when I read the message boards and reviews where critics and moviegoers weren't actually too sure if they understood the movie correctly. I've read reviews where they view the film as a social commentary between the divide between Japanese and Koreans, others view the film as a genuinely creepy horror movie, others view it from the tragedy that it is, others saw it as a spiritual exploration. And I was thoroughly surprised by this because I didn't see the ending as an abstract one. To me, it left very little to the interpretation.
But to better understand this, I had to search through interviews of the director (Hong Jin Na) on what he wants the viewers to take away with them. It helped a lot how the film came to be. He started writing the script of the movie when a series of deaths started happening to his friends/family members. Though he didn't elaborate, he termed the deaths as "unnatural" which leaves me to think they were murdered. Grieved with the loss of his friends, he started asking "why them?". It brought him to a journey asking different religions to somehow demystify it. This movie was a result of that exploration.
In some ways, the movie tries to answer that. Jong Goo, the "hero" of the movie, asked the same question several times but there's really no special reason behind it. The stranger did not choose them, it just so happened his daughter took the bait (now think back to the first frame of the movie where the stranger was seen fishing, putting a bait on the hook brilliant!) We often try to search for a deeper meaning into bad things that happens to us. To devout catholics, it's the guilt that it's punishment for sins we have committed. But in the end, we really don't have anyone but to blame but ourselves. It is within our will not to give in to the temptation/bait but sometimes we just do because we don't see through the events that will be set in motion. We often times act in haste thinking our actions doesn't have consequences.
The movie forces us to evaluate who brings unspeakable tragedies into this world. Should we blame the devil for laying down the trap? Or should we blame ourselves for being too blind to see it? I think this point was the one that resonated with me: people in this day and age have become desensitized with evil that we rarely think that the devil is real in a physical sense. There's that unbelief in the supernatural that it has no place in our reality. Just like Jong Goo who had heard of (he charged it to village rumours) and seen the Devil (he thought he was a serial killer, nothing more) before but never really understood what he was up against. Several times, he was also given a warning to stay away from the tragic path he was walking into (through his dreams and the most blatant one, to wait for the third crow of the roosters) but alas, Jong Goo relied on what was logical in our reality. It's more logical and easier to believe that our nightmares can never happen in the real world. It's more logical to rush back home when your family is in danger. It's more logical to believe in a religious figure (priest/shaman) than a woman you suspect is a ghost. And that same unbelief is the very tool that the devil uses against us.
"The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist." --- The Usual Suspects
This movie is loaded with symbolisms, parallels and commentaries but never once did it hinder the narrative. It even enriched the movie, making three hours seem like two! The director's control over the whole movie is just masterful. To achieve a tonal balance between humour and horror is an achievement by itself but add to that, a movie that works on so many levels this movie is a master filmmaker who understands how to "talk" to his audience, what buttons to push to make them think and to make them feel.
Hong Jin Na leaves the audience with this: Whatever ideas come to you while you watch the film, they're yours. I want this film to be your own. On the other hand, there is one thing I wish everyone who watches this film to feel, regardless of who they are: a condolence for those who disappeared after having fallen as victims of the world. And for those who are left behind, I sincerely wish this film gives you some time for condolences. -
I watched The Wailing on the back of strong critical response, a rarity for horror films. Unfortunately I was left a little conflicted.
The film's premise is a mix of tropes (possession, good vs. evil, religious mythology), and its slow-burn narrative is set in a relatively poor, rural village in South Korea.
The tone the movie strikes at first is one of slapstick and black-comedy. The local police are incompetent, unfit and seemingly terrified of everything. I laughed quite a few times throughout. We get little character development; these aren't complicated people. The lead protagonist, Jong-goo, has about as much depth as a petri dish, and - work-shy and cowardly - doesn't inspire much sympathy.
Then there's a jarring tonal shift towards seriousness. Seeing Jong-goo distraught over the mystery sickness his daughter is plagued by didn't move me at all, because the goings-on up until that point had been dealt with so flippantly and the characters were painted as comic foils contrasting with the horrific murders. Why would we care about what's happening to these people, when they've been painted as two- dimensional and foolish?
The film's final half-an-hour redeemed it somewhat. I'd predicted the twist that the Japanese man was wrongly vilified and was trying to save the village, so when the shaman confirmed it, I was disappointed by how obvious it had been. But then it turned out to be a bluff! Which took me by surprise. He's evil after all. The ending was particularly strong; tragic, but poignant, with some allegorical revelations.
The characters make some strange decisions throughout. Why, when Jong-goo discovered the Japanese man had a shrine with photographs of the recent village murders, did he, his colleague and the deacon simply run off? Bring the man in for questioning at least. Get his DNA. Do some actual police work. And why, if the Japanese man was a malevolent being, did he not offer some excuse to put Jong-goo et al off the scent? He made no effort to mislead them (beyond using the shaman), even when there was every opportunity to lie or distract Jong-goo each occasion they confronted him on the top of the mountain. The benevolent ghost Moo-myeong could've made everything clear early on if she'd been less ambiguous - instead she drip-fed pieces of information to Jong-goo, all too late. If she actually wanted to save the village, she could've easily done it.
When characters act in improbable or irrational ways in order to confuse the audience so the revelation is a surprise, that's lazy writing in my opinion. To me, this seems like this was just to force ambiguity so we weren't sure who was trustworthy or not, who was 'real' or not.
So it's a mixed bag of a movie. The positives are the setting, the basic plot and the pacing. The negatives are the tonal shifts, the shallow characters, some of the writing. There's a gem hidden in there somewhere, I just think it could've shone brighter if handled differently. -
coldman-7009911 May 2016I remember that I had a gut(Korean traditional exorcism by mudang like shaman) when I was 13. Back then, I was the most weakest student in my class. So my grandma always worried about my health and I met mudang with my grandma. After finishing ceremony, I got to her house by old truck. she said " Don't look back" "If you look back, bad spirits follow us and it will be harmful to us".and then I closed my eyes tightly until I got to her house.Because It was so sacred.
In a word about this movie, It feels like I looked back even if my grandma warned me.
That's all I can't say anymore.
You can find every good perspective of Korean movies. Moreover, You can taste a lot of texture of flavor such as Comedy, Horror(Exorcism,Gore,Traditional),philosophy(Religion, identity,suspicion),thriller. This movie is so ambitious. but It is very successful.
If you are interested in this movie, You should watch Bulshinjiok(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1535472/) before this movie. It will be helpful to understand Korean traditional ceremony and shamanism also you can see improvements of Korean movie. -
redrobin62-321-20731114 November 2016This is The Exorcist, Korean Style. If you look at this film, expect an amalgam of different genres - comedy, horror, drama, soap opera melodrama, all, unfortunately, colliding with each other through an "everything in the kitchen sink" mashup.
The bad: the police. They make the Keystone Cops look like Holmes and Watson. Absolutely ridiculous and spineless, I didn't know if the movie was supposed to be a real horror flick or a tribute to Abbott & Costello Meets the Wolfman. If the police were so terrified of being policemen, maybe they should just hang their hats in a vegetable stall somewhere. The pacing of the movie could use a little tightening up, too. The cheesy acting could also grate on your nerves, too. The cheesy, manipulative soundtrack also cost the movie a star.
The good: the special effects. No expense was spared in this department. All the gore looked realistic as well as the zombies themselves. They went out of their way to make those elements believable, and they were. Nice set design, too. Showed a seedy, poor favela-type style of Korea you often never see in pictures. That was a plus. Maybe that over-dramatic acting style is a Korean thing and, therefore, lost on me. Anyway, it is what it is. Recommended? Not really. You've seen most, if not all, of the scenes in this movie somewhere before. You won't miss much here. -
Wow, it was one of the greatest movies I've seen in years. It gave me chills and maintained it all along for the two hours and thirty minutes - I don't even remember how the time passed! I didn't expect to see this low rating (7.X is a bit lower than I expected). However, it is not surprising to see there is also a negative review. If you are a movie-goer who needs to clarify every movie under a single genre and doesn't like to think but just like to see the clear start-clear ending, this is not the movie for you. But if you like to think and love to find/collect evidences to think ahead and derive the director's intentions and if you want to see a new occult movie, this is the movie for you. If you pay attention, things would lead you to the right direction and that is the beauty of the movie!! Another masterpiece from Director Na and I can tell you that this movie is the greatest of all his movies!!
-
KineticSeoul8 August 2016Now I liked the previous film this director made called "The Chaser". Because it has a simple premise that delved into humanity but kept me thinking. And by the end it really did stick with me when I first saw it. This one tries to outdo that film by trying to add bunch of imagery and symbolisms. By meshing a lot of elements the director borrowed from other films that are left ambiguous. But the thing is the narrative isn't up to par and tries to be bigger than what it is. I could tell what the director of this film was trying to do. To keep the audiences guessing and leave things a bit complex. So by the end of it they will be in awe with what is going on and keep them talking about exactly what happened. Now I appreciate director's that don't spoon feed you everything that is going on. It works if the film flows with it's narrative, but this just seemed more complex for the sake of being complex. Like he was trying to make things a bit more ambiguous for the audiences and leave it up to the viewers to comprehend what is going on. Which works in films if everything flows together and isn't forced. But it's like the director took a simple story and made it more complex than it really is and added bunch of imagery and symbolism. So the plot takes plays in a country side rural village. Where weird things start to go down with some of the villagers acting very strangely, saying vile things and becoming zombie like. They think some old Japanese guy is the source of what is going on. When one of the police officers start to look to be possessed they hire a shaman. And thing start to get even more crazy from there on. The thing about this movie is that it's overlong and I think it could have been shortened down to about 2 hours and cut 30 minutes of it out. Because the build up is actually quite boring and things start to get a bit interesting and escalate the tension after one and a half hours in. Which is actually quite long to get to the meat of the movie. I will admit few of the symbolisms and how it comes together is actually quite neat. But as a whole the film seemed to suffer from the issue that arises from the storytelling aspect of things. Overall, it did have some good points with few of the symbolism and re-watching it may clarify certain things but I really don't want to.
6/10 -
evemas-am16 March 2018The Wailing may look like a generic and light-hearted horror movie on the surface. However, by delving deeper into the story's plot, evidences of satire that is related to the second World War and the Japanese invasion of Korea can be seen clearly. At the center of the satire, is the Japanese man who represents the war era Japan that had invaded Korea, resulting in the death of many men, women, and children and the emergence of "comfort Women" which was in reality the prostitution of young women and even girls. For instance, the young woman in white may represent the Comfort Women. There is even a a scene in which the Japanese man chases the woman in the jungle. And in another scene, he attacks another woman in an attempt to rape her. There are also other traces of rape and sexual abuse in women. For example, most women seem to have contracted a disease that is somewhat similar to that of an STD that has also transferred into men. And the policeman's daughter's thighs are bruised. Later, she also confesses that she has met the Japanese man. Moreover,the Japanese man's cleansing practice in the waterfall may represent Japan's attempt to cleanse its past, but to no avail. The whole village and maybe even the policeman stands for Korea, and the people are the nation. Nobody trusts the Japanese man, nobody likes him, but no matter how hard they try, they fail to drive him out of the village; he is there to stay and to make sure that everyone is consumed. One by one, the families fall victim to the Japanese man (or the Devil) who fall upon them like a disease. The disease then spreads until it consumes the whole village. Finally, the Shaman is a representation of traitors that allowed Japan to take over the country for their own personal profit. All in all, the movie has skillfully illustrated the horrors of the war, and the feeling of helplessness and darkness that takes over a country during such a period.
-
o_s_k_r20 October 2016I think this could very easily have been a 10/10 movie ranked amongst the greatest horrors of all time. However the director appears to have been given slightly too much power. Rather than create a gripping, punchy narrative we instead get an arty conflicting narrative with a "make your own interpretation" ending. The movie is also considerably too long.
I think the movie should have been heavily edited by the producers - it should have been cut down to around two hours. The strongest narrative strand was the one with the female ghost. Parts of the story that conflicted with this should have been altered. The zombie scene for example could have been made to fit with this narrative, it's a great scene though I wouldn't have cut it entirely. Also the photos needed to be explained - maybe the Japanese guy is actually keeping the zombies from returning to life? Then of course we need a punchier ending.
I think it was of dubious taste to insert some Christian themes. There was NO GOOD REASON for the guy to trust the female ghost, a couple of Jesus references in no way can compensate for how suspicious she had behaved previously - she had made the shaman spew blood lets not forget (and the Shaman had appealed to Buddha for help). Lead character has developed some courage and stamina and is no longer just a wimp. He flees home to his family ready to crack skulls. Final battles rages, shaman and ghost are both killed perhaps? Priest character shows up from hospital and helps out too?
OK, so I hear you say - it wasn't suppposed to be that sort of movie.
But the rest of the movie was AMAZING - It could have appealed to EVERYBODY. Entertainment is still what most people are looking for in a movie. It didn't have to entirely make sense, but just make more sense than it did.
.... then in a few years from now, the director could have reduced his own two and a half hour cut of the movie with the interpration ending. -
gbill-748772 May 2020Painfully long. Several really stupid moments in the plot. Scenes where the oafish cop (who really should not have been a cop, it would have made more sense) emotes in overwrought ways. Director Na Hong-jin seems to elongate and repeat everything, and I thought that the bloat took away from the horror. I also didn't care much for the Japanese demonization and tossing the word Jap around, even though I understand at least a little about the painful history. The cinematography was solid and the final scene was pretty cool, but it came way too late. This film should have been an hour shorter and its script tuned to make more sense.