Synopsis
Never be tempted.
A stranger arrives in a little village and soon after a mysterious sickness starts spreading. A policeman is drawn into the incident and is forced to solve the mystery in order to save his daughter.
The Wailing
2016 ‘곡성’ Directed by Na Hong-jin
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Alternative Titles
O Lamento, Gok-seong, Gokseong, Goksung, The Strangers, El extraño, Риданието, The wailing, Goksung - La presenza del diavolo, Вопль
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The Wailing left me speechless in the very best kind of way. I gave up early in the movie trying to figure out exactly what was happening. I decided to enjoy the ride, and try to interpret the key plot elements on rewatches. If you think you can 100% understand this movie on one watch, you're a whole lot smarter than me.
The Chaser, The Yellow Sea and now The Wailing. Director, Hong-jin Na is now a 3 time winner at the game of making marvelous movies. The cinematography is spectacular. The script is one insane rollercoaster of emotions. The gore. The drama. The intensity. The feeling of dread. This is a real horror movie. Nothing cheap. Nothing gimmicky. Simply,…
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One of the absolutely craziest of all South Korean films. And if you know Korean cinema, you know that's saying something. Also features what's probably one of the best child performances I've ever seen.
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catch my dumb ass staying up late readin articles because i decided to watch this terrifying movie that i don't even fully understand at 10pm on a friday night
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As parents, as friends, as partners, employees, we do the best that we can to help the ones we love in this life, to protect them against that which might hurt them, to help heal them when they are sick, to comfort them when they are in pain, to spend time with them to make them feel less alone, to let them know they are cared for, and that this care will extend throughout our time with them and beyond. That is what we hope, anyway. This world is vast beyond our understanding. Causality, and how it relates to our actions inside and outside of temporality, functions in ways we can only begin to dimly grasp. There is a limit…
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Na's films tend to be busy, pretty, aggressive, and way too damn long, and this is no exception. There are about four different kinds of horror movie in here (setting aside the goofy mordant comedy that finds its way into every Korean film), and that endless jumble of setups and tones is mostly numbing. Some folks find it terrifying when absolutely anything can and does happen, but to me it's just arbitrary, one disconnected shock after another.
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Roosters and ravens as pawns in this supernatural game of chess. Na Hong-Jin's response to Robert Egger's VVitch is a bloodier and edgier story drenched in unalduterated paranoia. The only wailing you'll hear are from the audience subjected to two hours of emotional torment. It's been a while and I forgot how devastating these South Korean thrillers can get, The Wailing has been a brutal reminder.
Gripping and weirdly enchanting despite being absolutely terrifying. Will be thinking about this for-- well, forever I guess.
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Six years after Kim Jee-woon electrified audiences with his bleak serial killer thriller "I Saw the Devil," one of his fellow Korean auteurs has replied with a riotously mangled supernatural horror film that asks with an impish grin: "Are you sure about that?" Already a monster hit back home, Na Hong-jin's spellbinding and scatterbrained "The Wailing" is 156 minutes of demented occult nonsense that gradually begins to feel less like a linear scary story than that it does a ritualistic invocation of the antichrist. Mileage will vary as to whether or not that's a good thing, but Na's movie is sure to be a treat for anyone disappointed that "I Saw the Devil" wasn't meant to be taken literally.
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Found myself struggling with The Wailing even as I reckoned with its often potent examination of a small community in crisis, unable to win against an ancient force. As a horror-narrative, it's way too bloated, with repetitious sequencing that often led to me thinking, "hey, I've already seen this moment before", but ultimately it's based in a design of having the unnatural and horrific feel systemic, overwhelming as to have it continue again and again. Frequently astonishing performances in it too, ranging from slapstick to harrowing grief, and the details make it unique even if it sacrifices effectiveness. In a way, considering how basic and conventional the horror imagery is in The Wailing, having it be a hot mess is preferred to a 90 minute genre-copy. Wasn't crazy about it, but it's a definite recommendation.
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Horror films are rarely as epic as The Wailing. With a daunting running time of two and a half hours, starting this was something I postponed many a time. Having only seen Na Hong-Jin's The Chaser and enjoyed it, but feeling it was a bit uneven, it did not really inspire confidence that he would manage to find balance in a film as big as this.
Boy, was I wrong.
If you've ever read a review of mine before, you'll probably know that I'm always bitching about a lack of characters connecting to their audience, characters worthwhile investing in. Especially in the horror genre where we're always dealing with situations that involve life or death,…
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Hooptober 4.0 - 2017 - Film #28
Throughout the film, Director Hong-jin Na, presents to us wide shots of mountainous South Korean landscapes. Captured during the magic hour, the images are bathed in the most majestic of light. This region of the country looks serene, untouched and timeless.
In contrast, the village nestled at its feet appears to be lost to time, running backwards and falling apart. Dilapidated buildings, rusted farming machinery, a general sense of stagnation and a hint of decay conjures a sense that this village is at the end of the world and forgotten.
Hong-jin Na has an obvious love of detail. Each run-down street, courtyard and building in this film is carefully captured and loaded with…