31 Days of Asian Horror: One Cut of the Dead (2017)

How do I talk about a movie like One Cut of the Dead? It’s an experience that you just have to…experience. The joy in this movie is watching it and following the crazy ride from start to finish. What starts off as a film about overworked actors shooting a zombie film with a cynical director evolves into chaos as zombies appear. The camera work, lack of decent lighting, sporadic focus, and not-so-great acting add so much to the film and captures the rawness blending the satire into the story flawlessly.

Because of how well it is able to take you on such an unexpected journey, it has become one of my favorite zombie films. It’s quirky and fun, yet extremely smart. This film depends upon your first viewing having not known any of the spoilers to truly get how beautifully this film was crafted and produced. It would be a disservice to take that away from your enjoyment of the film and if you haven’t watched it, now is the best time. Don’t let the first part stop you, I promise the payoff is more than worth it. Shinichiro Ueda was able to craft a witty and original horror-comedy while on a low budget with a cast of unknown actors that is satisfying and has a lot of heart. The film is beyond enjoyable.

I’m not going to lie to you, the movie’s draw is the twists and reveals, but it is still highly re-watchable even after knowing the secrets and just adds another layer of enjoyment. It gives you all the clues along the way and with each rewatch you see them in a new light. The film was inspired by Ryoichi Wada's stage play, Ghost in the Box, and in a way it follows that theatricality. Because of it, the movie allows you to transition from the viewpoint of the audience, the actors, and the backstage crew to get a lot out of your multiple viewings.

One Cut of the Dead is streaming on Shudder.

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31 Days of Asian Horror: The Guest (2018)

Today I’m focusing on a drama that I have had on my watchlist for much longer than it needed to be. I tried watching it back when it was airing but had some other things happen that led to not having time for it, and since Netflix picked it up the end of last year it’s been a drama that I knew I needed to rush to the top of my list. That obviously still took till now, but I still finally got around to watching it now, and am really glad that I finally did. While I probably missed a lot waiting this long, it was nice to go into the drama without having to wait for it to air, and binged it in a couple of days.

After a powerful demon is found possessing the weak, a trio consisting of a psychic born to a shaman family (Kim Dong Wook), a Catholic priest (Kim Jae Wook), and police officer (Jung Eun Chae) are forced to join forces to stop the demon. The drama was directed by Kim Hong Seon, who's previous works included the first season of Voice and Black. It premiered on OCN's new Wednesday/Thursday slot on September 12, 2018. There's been some talk of a season two, and back in 2019 a movie was in the process but neither projects have had more momentum.

While the drama is an exorcism story and focuses a good chunk on the possession, demons, and religion, it ends up not living in that world for most of the show. One of the most surprising aspects of the drama was in the investigation storyline. I thought it was going to center more heavily on the exorcisms or dive more into religious topics, and I was taken aback with how much the show was spent on it - almost like I was watching a crime show. Setting the show as more of a crime thriller than a horror really worked well for me. While exorcism stories aren’t something I avoid, they are in a grey area for me. If the plot is too heavily into religion I find myself not caring about the show or the characters and so it’s always a tricky venture for me. With the differences in the characters, and the heavy crime thriller elements I enjoyed it throughout.

Don’t get me wrong - if you are a horror lover, I think you would really enjoy this series, and it does have some truly great scenes that are disturbing and creepy. However, I do think it starts to follow a bit too formulaic pattern for the insertion of the horror. As I talked about above, the story follows much more closer to that of a crime thriller, and a lot of the storyline is based on that. The horror and scares tend to always come at the end of the episodes, and so a lot of the scares are too predictable. Despite this, what we got of the horror is interesting and deep. It’s creepy and dark and focuses much more on the realness of the evil as opposed to the antics. It also helped the reveals to be not only surprising but more devastating. Coming back to the realness of the world and how horrible it is in the viewpoint of demons worked well for the series and the real horrors of the world integrated well.

The dramas shines most in its the focus on characters and their relationships. The trio are interesting and fun together, all being strongly independent from each other in their beliefs and actions. In any other other drama, this might be used as a main conflict point, but the show focuses their relationship as more of a trio of siblings and despite their differences understand that they have to fall on each other because they share the same grief. All have been affected by the demon in some regard, but their differences are vast. The drama doesn’t try to hide that, and develops a real relationship between the three that allows for each of their personal beliefs to shine through and grow, with the understanding that they need each other. Not just to be able to heal, but because what they are fighting can not be fought alone. Each brings something to the table and their differences are interesting to watch. The trio spend a lot of time together and I came to really love the energy all three brought out of each other. It creates some great scenes together that not only lighten the mood, but also ground the horror. It’s a great found family plot.

Because the drama focuses more of the investigation of the trio, we don’t spend too much time with the main group of cops that Gil Young works with, and it adds an interesting dynamic that allows for the drama to not fall into a lot of the stereotypes that are prevalent in other crime dramas. I really enjoyed this aspect, as I was not spending my time annoyed with the investigation and how the cops were handling it, especially since this was in an area that was supernatural and a harder sell to the general population. Gil Young and her partner, Go Bong Sang (played by Park Ho San), have a great relationship together. He has taken her under his wing since her father’s passing and is a constant support to her. Even towards the end of the series when he has to face some developments that would question his faith of her, he trusts her enough to value her decisions.

I’m really happy that I was able to pick up the drama now, and happy that is now easily accessible for a much larger audience. I think the Netflix audience is a good choice for it. The cast and storyline are solid, and it’s hard to stop once you start. If you are looking for a darker show to watch for the season, or anytime, check out the drama.

The Guest is currently streaming on Netflix.

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31 Days of Asian Horror: Kuroneko (1968)

*Slight spoilers throughout

When I was first coming up with the list of movies to watch and review for this month, I knew I wanted to focus on some offerings that pushed me out of my watchlist and into areas that were a bit more foreign to me. It’s eventually how I chose do the “retro” day. I wanted to purposely pick some older films. I didn’t think when I was planning that I would develop such a deep love for it. It seems silly in hindsight, as a lot of the elements that these movies focus on and the way that they are produced are what I enjoy. I was happy that Kuroneko proved to be much more of a solid pick than I had ever hoped.

Kaneto Shindo’s Kuroneko is based on a folktale by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, In a Grove. Set during the civl war in Japan, the film follows a mother and daughter-in-law who are assaulted than murdered, returning as cat-like ghosts to avenge their deaths. I pause to say that this move is a horror. In a way, it is but the story flows as a mashup of multiple genres. Kuroneko is more than just a vengeful spirit tale. It’s a story of grief, love, anger, and a deep sadness of what could - and should - have been. Shindo is able to bridge the melding of these genres that goes beyond the normal vengeful female ghost stories and grounds the realness and confusion of the events.

The abrupt and brutal assault of the women in the very beginning of the movie sets up the tragedy they are forced to endure and there is an immediate understanding on why they do what they do. While their actions aren’t necessarily justified, the audience plays an understanding and sympathetic role and we immediately understand that the horror lies with these actions much more than what the pair will do. Their hatred for samurais are eventually challenged when Gintoki appears. Shige question everything and struggles with her want to feel his love and be happy again. The sadness that Yone feels for both her son and daughter-in-law and her pain and anger feeding her want for revenge create a story that is intriguing and heartbreaking. I was engaged throughout.

Another standout for the film is how it portrays the appearance of the pair. The practice of hikamiyu, shaving the brows and smudging on a higher line on the forehead, accented the feline features of the two. The lightness in the fight choreography also lent towards the feline feel as they were able to fly effortlessly through the air, landing quietly on their feet. There are only a few times we are reminded visually that they are cats, and at that point the viewer has almost forgotten that they are not the humans that they are presented with and just the smallest hint of them being inhuman reminds you of that and when the story of Gintoki starts to unfold it adds to a new grief.

The film is shot in black and white which adds another level to the creepiness of the setting when Yone takes the samurai back through the bamboo forests. The shadows and lines of the pair as they take the long walk through the woods heightens the tension of the situation - the density of the bamboo is engulfing. You are rarely ever scared for the women, though. In a way, the story is the act of the women taking back their lives, and becoming the upperhand in a time where they would normally not. They were violated in a such a horrific way that transcends their deaths, and there is something beautiful, while dark, about a story that allows them to see that out. While Yone finds her lost love and chooses to follow him, the mother can not. Even the love of her son doesn’t allow her to let go of vengence and mirrors how survivors can share the same assault, yet the way it affects them is drastically different.

Mizuki Sameuelson has a great essay that explores the topic more detailed, “Kuroneko: On Rape-Revenge and The Monstrous Feminine” that focuses more on the difference between Yone and Shige’s end choices that I highly suggest checking out.

Kuroneko can be streamed on the Criterion Collection.

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31 Days of Asian Horror: The Tag-Along (2015)

The Tag-Along is an adaption of the well-known Taiwanese urban legend, The Little Girl in Red. In 1998 after a hike, a Taichung City resident suddenly passed away and when family members viewed footage from the hike they saw that they had been followed by a young girl in a red dress, this led to increased sightings of the little girl and the legend continued to gain popularity. The insertion of the well-known legend connected with local audiences, and when it premiered it became a huge success. It broke the ten year record of the best-selling horror film in Taiwan (previously held by Silk in 2006). Executive producer Tseng Han Hasien stated that he wanted to make more than just a movie.

“I'm well aware there aren't many Taiwanese horror movies, but if no one wants to start, aren't we going to be stuck forever?” Tseng told The News Lens, following the release of the film in November 2015. “Taiwanese are too afraid of failure, and a movie not working out is enough to shake people's confidence.” (source)

I really wanted to like this movie, and it was presented as one that I would enjoy. I like slow builds because find them a bit more creepy. I want to be able to settle in the atmosphere trying figure out the mystery. While the start of the movie set up a premise that I wanted, it started to crumble as the plot got messy towards it’s finally act. There were some good creepy moments, but at the end the movie’s faults and a direction for a character I don’t agree with muddied my enjoyment. Because of this I’m going to talk a little bit more about the ending. Spoilers below.

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The story presents itself as one way, with Chih Wei assuming the central character in the first act. While I did find it interesting to switch to Yi Chan being the main character when he disappeared, it really was only to set up what happens to her later in the movie and despite having time with her character, they failed to set up her character’s actions for the end. Because of this, it directly conflicted with the little we do get to know of her. The only time we get a sense of who she is as a person isn’t during this time. While yes, we do see her struggle to find help for her missing boyfriend and the panic and grief that she is juggling while solely taking on the investigation, her background is not hinted at during this time.

We only get know more about who she is and what she stands for when she is with Chih Wei. One of the main conflicts between the two is that he has bought a house for them to live in together, without discussing it with her. It is revealed during this that Yi Chan doesn’t want to get married and doesn’t want kids, a point that she has already discussed it with Chih Wei who still tries to force her in the direction essentially guilt tripping her into it by surprising her with the house, and complaining about how long they had been together. There’s no nod to regret or some secret she has because of her stance, the story presents her as being independent and that this is just a clash between the two with no hint for it to be anything bigger.

The problem is, we need it to be bigger. We need it to have more consequence and have more nuance, or the events in the forest fail to live up as anything other than character assassination to tell the main agenda. It doesn’t make sense to who she is as a person, the one given by the script, and ultimately forces the stereotype that a woman must have some sort of horrid past that is tormenting her for not wanting to be a wife and mother and it’s a sad pivot for her as her own being. In a way, that’s all her character ever was. To her boyfriend and to the writer, Yi Chan’s actions - both in her aborting the child and her want to not be married and have kids - were taken away from her at the end. It’s obviously not the horror the writer wanted to portray, but it is the one we got.

While the ending was disappointing for me, I do feel that the movie had some general good moments and has some good moments that I do think a general audience will find creepy. Hsu Wei Ning did well within her role, bringing a lot to it. While I hated the way the reveal happened in the forest, her emotions are raw and honest and she really did well to keep up the weight of the movie (Wei Ning was just recently in Victims’ Game, a crime series currently streaming on Netflix, if you want to see more of her work I suggest giving that a look). I also think using the legend of the Little Girl in Red was an interesting take on the movie. It didn’t follow some of the main stories about the little girl, but took what was scary about her to create more of the mystery and I do see where a lot of the local audiences can connect with the story. Even if you don’t know a friend of a friend who had seen the girl, growing up hearing the legend helps you immerse yourself in the world because of that connection. The graphics were ok and while standard and overused, had some fun creepy moments. I think in general people will find this a pretty good movie and it is certainly not my least favorite despite my issues. The story did keep me guessing and the overall tone made it a mostly enjoyable watch. Combine that with Ning’s performance it was pretty decent till almost the end.

There is a 2017 sequel with both of the main actors returning to their role, and another movie in the series that focuses on a completely different legend. The sequel was a massive success, overtaking the original and becoming the highest-grossing local horror film of the past decade.

The Tag-Along is currently streaming on Tubi and AsianCrush.

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31 Days of Asian Horror: The Host (2006)

It’s officially October, and day one of the 31 Days of Asian Horror! What better way to start than with a personal favorite genre and one of my top Korean movies, the 2006 monster movie The Host.

After a military scientist flushes down a liquid that enters the Han River, a creature is created that makes landfall and takes the daughter of a snack bar attendant, Gang Du (Song Kang Ho). Written and directed by Bong Joon Ho (Parasite), The Host follows Gang Du’s family’s fight as they try to get back Hyun Seo from the creature and the obstacles that the creature’s presence creates.

The Host is a little bit different than most creature features, as it focuses it’s satire through the characters and not the creature. It combines action horror with an underlying plot about the background of the creature, the public’s response, and a larger coverup. The character’s are constantly grounded. The film portrays a view that is closer to what would happen in a situation like this rather than other action films with a super-powered hero that gets everything right.

We see this throughout the film not just within the main characters. The way the crowd reacts when the creature first emerges, throwing beer cans into the water or the white male hero trying to take down the creature to only get eaten within minutes. No character is necessarily good or evil. They all lack the skills to survive unlike normal main characters in an action film and the plot allows for those faults to work within satire and comedy that doesn’t go over the top. Even the way the government and the police handle it, and how the citizens who weren’t at the river view what happened, all help form a smart and entertaining story that keeps you guessing even when you think you have it.

Korean films, in general, tend to focus on families (related or found) as it is engrained in their culture, and khorror does not stray away from it. Much like films such as Train to Busan or The Quiet Family, through the wackiness of the central plot The Host focuses on the underdogs working as a team and the importance of them all working together to become the hero. At the end of the day, The Host is a focus on the importance of family and the fight (to help family or those in trouble) makes you a hero even when you don’t think you possess those skills.

I highly suggest watching this movie even if you are not a horror fan. It’s a fun watch that will keep you entertained and engaged throughout. The movie is wacky, quick-witted, and has a lot of heart.

If you are looking for more movies similar to this, I suggest giving Chaw a chance. I previously reviewed it here.

The Host is currently streaming on a number of sites such as Hulu, Amazon Prime, and Tubi and available on Blu-Ray/DVD.

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31 Days of Asian Horror

Happy almost October!

While it’s spooky season year-round here, the Halloween season warrants special posts and this year I’ll be reviewing a different Asian horror every day leading up to Halloween. I tried to pick as much of a variety of movies and shows from different countries as possible, but I also wanted to keep it to things that are attainable and easily accessible. I’ll also be focusing on switching up the reviews from time to time with fun extras and behind the scenes and while most of the reviews will probably be spoiler free some of the movies and dramas will warrant a more in-depth look. As a means for me to narrow down what Asian horror that I was going to pick, each day of the week has a specific theme.

SCHEDULE:

+ Retro Sundays: Retro is a bit loose, as the earliest movie is from 1981, but I wanted to focus on some older Asian horror from before the 90’s.
+ Drama Mondays: To switch things up and not just focus on movies, Mondays I’ll be reviewing horror dramas.
+ Film Maker Tuesdays: Movies that focus on film makers, whether it’s a main character or the movie is documentary style, will be up on Thursdays.
+ Wednesday Pairings: The focus will be on movies that have remakes (like my Ringu post) and maybe a double feature, comparing the two movies.
+ Thirsty Thursdays: While vampires aren’t too common in Asian horror, there are some options and Thursdays are dedicated to the blood suckers.
+ Creature Feature Fridays: One of my favorite genres, Creature Feature Fridays will be devoted to all types of creatures (except the blood-sucking kind).
+ Freebie Saturdays: Saturdays will be a freebie day for me with no set theme.

While I’ll most likely dial back on some of my regular and extra posts for the blog outside of these, I will still be doing Wine and an X-Phile posts on Fridays. I may throw in a special post or two time allowing. If you have any Asian horror movies you think I need to watch, or just want to talk about your favorite, let me know in the comments! I’m still going to be watching movies outside of the reviews, and would love to add to my watchlist.

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Squid Game Review

Squid Game came out this past Friday and I, having no will and strength, binged the entire thing on Saturday (save one episode that I watched on Friday, but I had other things to binge on Friday so I had to wait). I was really excited to watch, it being one of the only dramas premiering this month that I had my eyes on, and I generally like these survival game thriller horrors, so it’s not too surprising I would finish basically the drama in one sitting. While the drama was a great binge and I did enjoy a lot of it, after sitting with it for a while there was more that I wanted to talk about than just a quick non-spoiler review and some plots that I had issues with.

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Squid Game follows the contestants in a secret game where they will be given a set amount of money if they win. To win they have to be the last person standing, playing various games to win. The setup for the games is a little more interesting than most in this drama, as they aren’t complicated puzzles that you have to figure out a la an escape room. All the games come from childhood and are easy, familiar games. I liked how the games being played out the way they were relatively adaptable for any of the players. While with some games the player could have a disadvantage being elderly or not as strong, some of the games were based on luck or simple mind games. The game contestants had an age range that was much more skewed the older side (although we had a few main characters who were young), most of the main players being middle age. It was a good set up the reason why they decided to play the game. All were down on their luck and for most the outside world was just as bad as this blood-filled game.

One of the comments I’ve heard from multiple people online is the predictability of the games - not just in who was going to win. And it’s true, it’s pretty clear what’s going on from the beginning and most of the reveals weren’t that shocking. Especially if you’ve watched any of these types of dramas, or even if you are just a general kdrama watcher. I think one of the biggest problems with kdramas is that they follow the same format (no matter the genre) and very few ever fall out of it - there’s very little exception. And for this drama, for all that it does right, it still lives in a kdrama world. Everyone is always tied with everyone. Always. As soon as I realized it was too easy for the cop, Jun Ho, to enter the grounds and become an employee with access to weapons and gear, I knew his brother who he was looking for was the guy behind the mask. How else was he able to infiltrate a highly organized game that has not only cameras but a scanning system. By kdrama trope standards, his brother not being a contestant but the guy behind the man was the only option for those two. I knew that the old guy was more than just a contestant who was magically good at everything, and magically falls completely apart in a matter of minutes (you also don’t see him get shot while the others were shown, so if you didn’t know before, that solidified everything). Kdramas tend to focus on the differences between the rich and poor which I don’t think is much of a factor in Western shows. Because of this, I never assumed that the one controlling could be some crazed psychopath serial killer, it was gonna be a bored rich guy.

While knowing these things made some of the surprises not as enjoyable to my watch, that doesn’t mean that it’s necessarily a bad thing overall. The predictability led me to focus on other characters a little bit more closely without the added view of trying to figure out if they would be the ones to survive. The character arc of Abdul Ali (No. 199) was solid and engaging because we knew the inevitable end of his character. His last moments with Cho Sang Woo (No. 218) were heartbreaking and real, leading to one of the most devastating deaths of the games. Since I was focused on what Jun Ho was going to do, I didn’t spend time focused on who the actor playing his brother could be. I am not kidding, if you heard the shriek that came out of my mouth when Byung Hun appeared. I don’t know if there was a rumor or spoiler floating around that he was going to be in the drama, but for the most part, I steered clear of everything (except for a last minute Gong Yoo appearance spoiler) so I was genuinely shocked it was him.

My main problem with drama fell squarely on a typical kdrama trope that I didn’t think was going to have such an impact on my viewing, nor take me out the games so much: the random English-speaking white guy. We always joke about how terrible they are when they show up in a drama, but I don’t think it’ll ever compare to the detriment they did in this. For them being the VIPs - the people betting on players, and supposed to be key characters - yet given the lines they were given was almost insulting to the script. I was supposed to feel disturbed watching them bet on players, they are part of the villains in this story, and yet all their lines made me cringe. It’s such a shame that it was so far into the drama as well and during key moments with Jun Ho and his escape. I assume their childish retorts were to mirror the childish games they were watching and betting on but the execution lacked any of that depth. This was Netflix produced, you’re telling me you couldn’t find anyone in Korea who could deliver lines better? Or any person who knew English to rewrite the lines and tighten them up? With such stellar acting for the main cast, it was a let down and took me a while to get back into the drama after.

More than anything that I got out of the drama, the visuals won. The set design is outstanding and I could easily watch detailed tours of each room. With its Willy Wonka oddness and the bright pinks, blues, and yellows, the whole design added a layer to the entire drama that really added so much to the overall story. It was also done without CGI, opting for real sets, which always helps out the world immersion not just for the audience, but also the actors and I really think it showed. The design fell into the molded conformity of humans as they grow up, having to enter into the capitalistic society while learning those things at an early age. The familiar location of the sets - key places you would remember from your childhood - the bright colors all added to the dreamlike world they were living in that was oddly familiar and yet skewed like your own memories of things when you were young. Everyone in lines or formations and in the same gym outfit, it was a great contrast and visually appealing aspect. I always love when time is spent on world-building, especially when you can tell that the director and creative team feel that is important.

In the end, Squid Game did have some solidly interesting stories, suspenseful games, and stellar acting but there were a bit too many important unanswered questions that left the end lacking and yet somehow had too much downtime filler to fill the 9 episodes. I understand that some of the unanswered questions were purposely done for the set up of a second season…but I have a problem with a second season. I don’t think it should be done, specifically in how they are setting it up to be. Could they do a second season with different characters and different games and it be good? Absolutely. But the ending of the first season told us that was not the route they were going to take, opting for the potential for him to be back in the games, maybe to infiltrate? It doesn’t seem right that he would go back as a character, especially as he is just getting back to being a human and obviously had fixed things with the relationship with the daughter.

I also wish we had gotten to see more with the employees. The small glimpses you get were intriguing and made me really want to know more about them. Why they were there, what they were promised or told about the games. We see tiny peaks with the cop, but it’s so small and doesn’t accurately portray the greater world they live in that is obviously very different than the players. It would be an interesting look. If I had the pull the second season would focus on them, not the contestants.

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Whispering Corridors Guide

It’s been three months since the kick-off of the Korean Summer Horror celebration and like all good things, it must come to an end. What better way to celebrate than focus on the franchise that l started this on - Whispering Corridors. This post will be part review, part ranking, and bit of extra bits and pieces of trivia about the series to help give you a rundown of the series itself and how I enjoyed it.

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Background

The Whispering Corridors series started with the first film on May 30, 1998, where it became a surprise hit ranking third domestically in box offices that year. The film went on to produce five more spin-offs, the fifth, The Humming, releasing on June 17 of this year. While each of the movies focuses on a completely different story and are independent of each other, they do share some similar traits. All of the movies are set in all-girl high schools, and the main focus is on the students. They highlight specific problems that are known in the Korean school systems such as abusive parents/teachers, teen pregnancy, bullying, suicide, and over the top competition. They also showcase the relationships between the girls, both in friendship and heavily romantic undertones. None of the films share any other characters or story lines however the sixth film does seem to have a possible small tie to the early movies in the franchise (as it is officially labeled as a reboot). At the time of this post, I have not watched it nor is it accessible for International audiences (and thus, will not be included in this ranking).

The list of movies, in order that they premiered:

• Whispering Corridors 1 (May 30, 1998)

• Whispering Corridors 2: Momento Mori (December 24, 1999)

• Whispering Corridors 3: Wishing Stairs (August 1, 2003)

• Whispering Corridors 4: Voice (July 15, 2005)

• Whispering Corridors 5: A Blood Pledge - Broken Promise (June 18, 2009)

• Whispering Corridors 6: The Humming (June 17, 2021)

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Reviews and Ranking
*While I won’t be going into extreme detail in my reviews and synopsis, I might dive a bit deeper into spoiler territory for these. This is your warning.

#5: A Blood Pledge
Written and Directed by Lee Jong Yong. Starring Oh Yeon Seo, Son Eun Seo, Kang Byul, and Song Min Jung.
Coming in at last place is the fifth movie, A Blood Pledge. Set in an all-girls Catholic boarding school it follows the suicide of one of the students. Her and three other girls form a pact to commit suicide and sign a blood pledge that if anyone survives they will be haunted for the rest of their lives. The story sets forth the aftermath of her death, and her constant haunting to showcase the true story of the pledge and what led them to consider suicide.

Out of all the other movies, this one took a bit of a different path and combined weird deaths and random gore into the story line to play up the scares, unlike the other movies where it was bit more into the unknown and slow burns. It was also the campiest out of all of them, and felt that the acting and the script were lacking. Because of all this, I was not interested in the story nor the characters and in the end the story’s resolve wasn’t interesting enough for me.

Notes: This is the first of the movies to be set at a specific religious institution and the first one to talk about teen pregnancy. It is also the second to show a male relationship, but the first to show a relationship outside of the school.

#4: Voice
Written by Choi Ik Hwan Seol and Joon Seok. Written by Choi Ik Hwan. Starring Seo Ji Hye, Kim Ok Bin.
Voice follows the death of a voice student who haunts the school not knowing what happened. She can only being heard by her friend, Sun Min, who tries to uncover what happened to her.

I personally felt that Voice was lacking in depth and story, specifically for a horror film. The story mostly felt that of a detective story between the two friends, and the reveal was lack luster and kind of messy. It was the most boring out of the series for me, and I came out of it with no real impact. While her death was the creepy, I didn’t feel we spent enough time with who was the murderer and the relationship between the two for the pay off, and the way she died felt like it needed much more paranormal justification (as it was an impossible death for a person to do). While not a terrible film all-in-all, those short comings led to a lower rating for me. The movie also felt like it was the first shift in the series to break away from the original motif, and started to stray away from things that were grounded in subjects that were present in the real lives of a student, a theme I enjoyed in the series.

Notes: While Kim Seo Hyung stars as a voice teacher in this movie, her role in The Humming is not a reprisal and unrelated. While this carries over the arts concentration from the last film (Wishing Stairs), they have no ties to each other either.

#3: Wishing Stairs
Directed by Yun Jae Yeon. Written by Kim Soo Ah. Starring Song Ji Hyo, Park Han Byul and Jo An.
Jin Sung and So Hee are friends at a ballet school when a competition for an international spot leads to their relationship to be strained. Jin Sung finds out about the Wishing Stairs, a set of stairs on campus that will grant a wish and wishes for something that leads to great consequences.

While Wishing Stairs didn’t have as great of an impact as the top two on this list, and realistically it’s not the best, I did enjoy a lot more than the other films. I think it kept up well with the main plot points of the previous two, and personally felt the betrayal of friendship because of a competition was a good plot to take and was a bit more centered in what students could relate to, especially with it being a close friend. The character of Hye Joo is a little hard to handle, as I’m sensitive to any portrayals of overweight characters, but felt that in the grand scope of Asian entertainment, it probably was the best representation we were going to get from her. The main characters both interacted with her, but they never shared an distain for her because of her weight, and I really appreciated that. Wishing Stairs also kept up the motif of their being a legend or unknown on campus (with the stairs) that leaves the series after this.

Notes: This is the first of the films to be set in a boarding school, and one that was for a specific concentration (arts). Wikipedia suggests that the story follows closely to the ballet, Giselle.

#2: Whispering Corridors
Directed by Park Ki Hyung. Written by In Jung Ok and Park Ki Hyung. Starring Kim Gyu Ri, Lee Mi Yeon, Choi Kang Hee, Yoon Ji Hye, and Park Jin Hee.
Set at an all-girls school that’s said to be haunted by a former student who committed suicide there, Whispering Corridors follows the students and faculty after a teacher is found dead at the school and the rumors that start to spread about what happened.

I have full review of the movie already up the on the site, which you can find here. This movie came in second on the list not because I don’t generally really like the movie. I really enjoy the atmosphere and the slow build of the reveals of what was going on at the school and found that out of all the movies, this is probably more closely tied to what students, especially females, face in school which I’ve talked about previously in this post being a huge selling point for me. I really respect what the movie did, and it’s a movie I highly suggest watching.

Notes: With it being one of the first horror films to be produced after the 90’s lift on film regulations, it had to be produced cheaply. The entire production only cost $600.000 (USD) to make. In 2015 it was announced that there would be a Chinese remake of the series, co-produced with original production house, Cine2000.

#1: Momento Mori
Written and Directed by Kim Tae Yong and Min Kyu Dong. Starring Park Ye Jin, Kim Gyu Ri, and Lee Young Jin.
High school students Si Eun and Hyo Shin become romantically involved and the relationship causes them to be bullied by the rest of the students. Soh Min Ah finds the journal the girls share, which reveals the story behind their relationship.

Momento Mori takes a different approach in its story telling as the story is shown not only real time, but as Min Ah reads the journal and is connected to the two’s relationship and story. It jumps pretty quickly between what is going on and Si Eun and Hyo Shin’s past that creates some confusion with the story, but also directly mirrors the chaotic relationship of the two. Not just in their ‘taboo’ relationship, but also the relationship of teen’s first love: confusing, over the top, and a whirlwind of emotions in a short time. While all the movies have ghosts, this one feels the most paranormal because of the way the book almost overtakes Min Ah and becomes a living thing, and the crazy explosion of it all at the end. It takes the number one spot because I thought the use of those elements, even in their overdone way, convey what high school is like in teenagers and overall became a more entertaining movie and my favorite of the five.

Notes: Momento Mori was one of the first Korean commercial teen films to depict lesbian characters. This is also the only film to depict a male/student relationship, as most of the movies teachers are more physically abusive or just not present at all.

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While the series does have its flaws, I found it mostly enjoyable and a must see for any Asian horror fan.

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Review: Howling Village (2019)

With the amount of times I kept seeing Howling Village pop up in various horror news outlets, and its slots in various film festivals, I was really interested in the movie and made a point to watch it when it was released in the US on VOD as opposed to waiting till it was on Blu-Ray or later on in the year when I’m not spending most of my attention on Korean horror. Written and directed by Takashi Shimzu (Ju-On), Howling Village follows psychiatrist Kanae who’s brother goes missing after events that happened while visiting the Haunted Village with his girlfriend, and her journey to uncover the mysteries of the village and it’s ties to her family. In theory, it sounds like everything I would want in a movie. Mysteries, ghosts, family secrets, and creepiness. The movie, however, didn’t quite live up to it.

While the film started off relatively quickly, after about the first third it felt draggy and bogged down in the pursuit of the truth behind the Howling Village and their family’s relation to it. There was a lot of time spent on this, and very little scares were part of this. If you are not a lover of slow burns, this movie will not be your cup of tea. I was intrigued by the mysteries in the beginning, but it failed to live up to what I assumed it would be. The reveals were a bit underwhelming and confusing. Even at the end during the main reveal, much of the focus was trying to figure out what was going on and why the pieces we got along the way come to this. This resulted in a lot of the creepy factors being overshadowed by trying to keep up with what was going on.

The haunted village and tunnel in the movie are based on true legends, as Takashi stated in this Disappointment Media interview:

“The producer approached [me] about some strange things that had happened in this Inunaki Tunnel and what may have happened in the tunnel, a lot of it has been taken up on the internet, and everybody has chimed in with their own version and their own ideas. And basically, [I] took all of that and started to put it together into a script.”

I’m not familiar with the legend, and while not much information is available, I did find several articles about some of the lore behind it. The tunnel is located in Miyawaka town in the Fukuoka Prefecture and is mostly famous for the amount of murders that have occurred in or near. The tunnel is currently sealed because of this. The YouTube channel Kowabana Japan has a couple of videos with a brief history of the area, including the main murder that happened that has cursed the area. I suggest checking out the video (found here). While it doesn’t really tie to the movie, it is interesting to know a little more about the area and why it is a known place for people in that area.

Although Howling Village did not live up to the hype for me, I did enjoy some parts. I thought Ayaka Miyoshi was great in her main role, and her scenes with the boy she was taking care of were some of my favorite parts. I would have loved a bit more with them, and more with the spirits he could see. I would recommend this to anyone who’s into jhorror or a fan of Takashi’s work, but wouldn’t drop things to make room for it. Howling Village is currently on VOD in a number of places (I watched it on YouTube) and will be released on Blu-Ray September 14th.

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Review: The Master's Sun (2013)

In honor of The Master’s Sun having premiered today 8 years ago, I decided to finally sit down and watch the drama and review it. I know it’s a pretty universally loved drama as it is always brought up by a slew of people, even those that don’t like darker dramas and its MyDramaList score is fairly high. Going in the drama had a pretty big shoe to fill and sadly it never filled that for me. In fact, by the first episode I knew that it wasn’t going to be an enjoyable watch for me, but I continued for all seventeen episodes because I wanted to try to see what I was missing.

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The Master’s Sun follows Tae Gong Shil (Gong Hyo Jin) a medium who is plagued with being able to communicate with ghosts. She meets stoic rich businessman, Joo Joong Won (So Ji Sub), who had suffered a tragic loss when he was younger and in trying to find out what happened, developed a disdain for anyone who says they can see ghosts. They meet and develop a relationship as she deals with her ability and he uncovers the truth behind his first love.

One of the biggest problems I had with the drama was the relationship between Gong Shil and Joong Won. The relationship is entirely based on him controlling her. Consistently. There was never a time I thought that their relationship was sweet, or that there was some push for me to believe that they should be with each other. Usually, these types of yelly/grumpy male interest dramas at least change the guy to a passable person that you can imagine the female being with, but that never happened here, he stays consistent till the end. I guess in a sense it’s the most realistic option as people don’t change like that (especially not with professional help)? An exhausting realistic option for a drama that’s main focus was romance.

Another part that was hard to watch with the drama was the fact that we never saw real growth from Gong Shil in any real sense. The drama wanted you to believe that she does, but she doesn’t. What little growth we saw was only tied to Joong Won, and that was only through her falling in love with him. She never believed in herself the way that she was and accepted her faults, and didn’t see the real good she was doing with helping the ghosts. She blamed everything on herself, and Joong Won never provided any true or lengthy support to help her see her strength or to make her know that it wasn’t her fault. She never got to grow the way she deserved. The imbalance in the power dynamic between the two stayed present and dominating throughout, making the relationship feel messy and uncomfortable. And that’s really sad. It was entirely a one-sided relationship that I was never rooting for and never felt good about.

While I did like the sub-story about his first love, I found that it was nothing like the rest of the drama and didn’t work well when paired with it. It was darker and felt like the writer was constantly forcing two completely different stories together. Even the stories of the ghosts tended to not be consistent, and while I do think the format of focusing on a different ghost and its story for an episode or two helped with the entertainment, you could tell their only purpose was to bring in the horror element and clashed just as much as the first love story. It just never fit for me, and I do think a lot of that had to do with Gong Hyo Jin’s character and how scared she was at not scary things it just made it seem like they were trying to hit you over the head that this was a horror drama through her (or just a catalyst for her to constantly run into Joong Won’s arms). I feel that a lot of times the ghost storylines were rushed to the point that I never connected with them, which is a loss because a lot of the heart and warmth of the drama was supossed to be pulled from those stoylines and fell flat, especially when they weren’t accomplishing that warmth through the main relationship. As far as it being labeled a horror drama, they do mean this in the loosest of terms. While some of the ghosts had a little bit darker storylines dealing with their death, for the most part they are the scare level of Disney’s Haunted Mansion.

While I didn’t like the drama, I don’t want to spend this entire review bashing it, because that’s not fun and not realistic. There were parts that I enjoyed about it and thought worked well. I specifically loved the assistant character played by Choi Jung Woo. I’m a sucker for the gentle fatherly type of presence, and I thought his character really did this well and was not only good for Joong Won, but all of the other characters. He developed realistic and healthy bonds with all of them, and I think that if anyone learned anything in the process of the drama, it was from him.

In a drama that is so fraught with the generic tropes (and I’m serious about this, they used every trope from wrist grabs to amnesia to random separation), the one thing it did surprisingly well was handle the evil mother in law. While she was a presence of nonacceptance, she was level-headed and not over the top. It was real and refreshing to see the character be handled that way, and I really enjoyed that her husband was equally as good and that their relationship was not a relationship of hatred, but of love and acceptance for their differences. It was really nice.

The second female lead was also not over done and drawn out as I thought she was going to be in the first couple of episodes. She was annoying, and created some minor barriers, but overall she was fine and allowing her to not be an evil character helped her storyline. I liked her parts with Seo In Guk, even if she was a tad too pushy, and their storyline was generally cute and not draining.

All-in-all I’m sad that the drama didn’t live up to what I thought it would be for me. With a strong cast of actors and the praise it constantly got, I thought that it would be a fun watch for me and it was anything but. Make no mistake, I know that the drama is outside of my genre tastes a bit, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t enjoyed other romcoms and with the addition of the horror element I was sure that this one would be at the least a fun watch but that just wasn’t the case.

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Phone (2002) Non-Spoiler Review

Phone was written and directed by Ahn Byeong Ki, who’s known for a number of horror works such as the Bunshinsaba series, APT, and Death Bell 2. The movie follows Ji Won (Ha Ji Won), an investigative journalist who starts to get mysterious calls on her new cellphone. Thinking it’s in reference to a case she had just broken, she thinks nothing of it until things escalate when her friend’s daughter gets ahold of the phone and hears something that frightens her, prompting Ji Won to investigate the source of the calls.

Phone has everything I personally love in horror films. The spookiness of a horror film, with the mystery of a crime drama. I think the film balances out the creepy bits with the investigation into what is behind the problems with the phone well. It keeps you not only on the edge of your seat because it uncovers some great shocks, but also because you don’t know what the entity is going to do next and why. Pair all of those elements with a delightfully creepy kid, and you get a really enjoyable movie.

The stand-out performance in the cast is Eun Seo Woo as Young Joo. Her role requires her to deal with a range of emotions and she is able to pull it off at only seven years old. I’ve watched Ha Ji Won in several roles, all in rom-com settings, so it was nice to see her in a different role. Although she seems to be the main character as the phone calls are coming to her, she really isn’t in the context of the movie and is there as the catalyst to unveil what happened. I thought she worked well in that role and didn’t take the attention away from that storyline while keeping her character grounded. Kim Yoo Mi as Young Joo’s mom is also great, her character progression throughout the movie was subtle but highly effective.

At the risk of not giving too much away, I will say that I liked the nod to The Tell-Tale Heart paired with the build of tension using ‘The Moonlight Sonata’ at the end and was a great wrap-up to the story. The movie has a good amount of twists and turns that keep you entertained. If you like Asian horror for its slower builds and vengeful ghosts, I highly suggest checking out Phone.

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Four Episodes: Who Are You

I started doing this series way back in 2019 and since then I’ve only done that one initial post and what a perfect time to do that than with a drama that premiered today. The basic rundown of this series is that I discuss my thoughts on the first four episodes of a drama. It’s sort of like a first impression but dives a little bit farther into the series without being a full series review. It’s based on the rule that a lot of drama watchers follow where they watch four episodes before they decide whether they are going to drop a drama or not. While I don’t personally do that (if I don’t like a drama at the first episode, I’ll drop it without hesitation), I do think that this format is a little bit better for writing posts than just the two episode first impressions because you do get a better sense of what the series is going to be and have a bit more to talk about.

Note: Even though this drama has been out for a while, the spoilers in this post will only focus on the first four episodes.

Native Title: 후아유
Release Date: July 29, 2013
Episode #: 16
Network: tvN
Director: Jo Hyun Taek (SKY Castle)
Writer: Ban Ki Ri (Missing: The Other Side), Moon Ji Young (Queen Maker)
Genre: Thriller/Mystery/Horror/Supernatural/Romance
Starring: So Yi Hyun, Ok Taecyeon, Kim Jae Wook. Rest of the cast can be found here.

The premise of Who Are You is pretty simple and even though it is labeled as a horror, it’s really not. Yang Shi On (So Yi Hyun) is a detective who is able to see ghosts following waking up from a coma after being attacked during a case that left her boyfriend (Kim Jae Wook) dead. She sees a ghost, finds out that they’ve been murdered, and then she spends two episodes solving the case with Cha Gun Woo (Taecyeon). Part of the struggle with the cases is that they aren’t really cops. Well…they are but they work in lost and found; Shi On because of being placed in a low stress position after the coma, Gun Woo because he’s a rookie cop. I don’t really know what lost and found cops do, or why they are needed (are they even a thing in Korea?) but it does stunt them in situations because a lot of the time neither have clearance or access to a lot of the information on the cases or ways to protect themselves because they don’t carry guns.

Admittedly I haven’t watched many - if any - crime dramas from before 2016, and so I don’t have a lot of comparison to some other dramas of the genre, but Who Are You does seem to run into similar problems and tropes that dramas in general from that period have with a lot of questionable content. While I can still enjoy them, they really annoy me when they get into the territory of light abuse masked by love and other subjects. Taecyeon’s character plays the over acted screamer, and while it’s nice to see this type of role in the male lead when it’s almost always reserved for the female lead, it does lend to situations that are hard to watch. He yells at Shi On constantly, undermining her as a capable cop (or really human), and for some reason having a temper tantrum of a two-year-old means that he is to be seen as better in the situation and just trying to protect her “absentmindedness”.

Can’t win those suitors with a scar on your arm!

Shi On sees ghost and was in a coma for like six years after watching the love of her life get shot. I think she’s allowed to be a little weird. Should she be in law enforcement? Maybe no, but she was officially assigned to only doing smaller desk work in a department that isn’t supposed to have these types of cases so it’s not really her fault. While she definitely isn’t in a position to mentally handle these murder cases, at least she isn’t purposefully trying to pick up these cases on whims or a sheer determination to push herself. She does it to not be plagued by seeing the ghosts. Which honestly is a nice setup to see, as a lot of time these types of dramas can have leads who are forceably doing things that are outside of their mental capability because they think they are better than anyone, and it’s nice to not have that type of cockiness in the lead. It’s one of those dramas that while labeled as a crime drama, they don’t do anything by the law or correct and expect that the audience has no knowledge to help carry that narrative.

That being said, I did like some aspects of the drama specifically when they did dial back all of the comedy and overacting and started to focus on the cases. It had some good moments, that really could have been great. I think that is what is ultimately the real problem with the drama. You can see where the drama is supposed to go, and how it’s just not there yet (if it’ll get there at all). If the focus of the drama was less about forcing the connection of the two being the obvious set up of a romantic couple, especially during these first episodes, and allowed the stories of the individual murder cases to be the focus, I think it would have shaped up to be a solid start to a crime drama with a lot of intrigue and mystery. I have to admit that despite those faults, I found myself being immersed in the story. The episodes aren’t very long and I think it helped keep me interested in what I was watching as it wasn’t constantly trying to draw out the story line with a lot of filler. I also like the setup of the story arcs and how they are centered on a different cold case each two episodes. I do hope that it’ll continue that way throughout the series.

I’m intrigued enough to see where it’s going for the rest of the series, especially since it took till the last seconds of the fourth episode for Jae Wook’s character to be brought back and we didn’t get much time to understand what his presence in the drama exactly is. With Taec’s character being too misogynistic for me to handle I know that it’ll be grating for me to keep up watching regularly, especially in large doses. For now it’s not a drop, but it is going to be kept on-hold and I may get back to it every once and a while.

The drama is a little hard to find and I’ve honestly not heard anyone talk about it, so if you’ve watched the drama, let me know what you thought (no-spoilers!) and if I should give it more of a try.

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Coma (2006) Review

Not very many horror dramas premiered during the summer, and of the few only a couple were fully horror and didn’t lean into comedy. The short five-episode OCN drama, Coma, is one of them. Premiering July 21, 2006, Coma is about a hospital that is closing and the secrets that are unearthed when an insurance agent comes to check on the hospital’s remaining patient who is in a coma. The drama was co-produced with the production house Sio Film and was shown at the 7th Jeonju International Film Festival in 2006.

I really didn’t know anything about Coma going into the drama, and so when I added it to my list of things to watch and review that premiered during the summer I knew that I was playing a dangerous game that it could very well turn out to not be something I would enjoy. But to my surprise, I was really into Coma and it caught me from the very beginning. The mystery of what happened unfolds well, with each episode focusing on a specific person tied to the events and what part they played. The drama goes much darker and creepier than I was expecting. It had a good grasp of incorporating a creepy tone and well-played scares that were consistent throughout the drama. I really wasn’t expecting it to go as dark as it did. I was pleasantly surprised that not only did it stay that way throughout, but was constantly adding more to the suspense and mystery of the drama throughout each episode.

I did find it hard to keep track of some of the characters, and this is mainly due to it jumping back and forth in time. It used time jumps pretty regularly and in different ways and along with some of the character’s being children during the time of the incident but grown in present day, it added to the confusion when some of the main older characters didn’t also have a defining age or appearance change. There are also jumps to incorporate the storylines of the previous episodes (that occur in the present time) and the characters do “see” what had happened in the viewpoint of the ghosts as well as the actual jumps into the past. But the story’s mysteries were intriguing and the scares kept me engrossed dispute the confusion, and once I finished the drama it had worked itself out. It’s definitely a drama that you need to watch all episodes for it to make sense, and I would suggest watching them as close as possible.

I really did love this drama. I think the episode number length works in its favor, along with it being an OCN production, so that it wasn’t tied to normal viewing regulations. Its director for the first and last episodes, Gong Su Chang, worked on horror films R-Point and the Ring Virus and so the drama really had a good creative team attached to it to make it work. I know that with it being an older drama it will detract people from picking it up, but it’s a great mystery with good scares and atmosphere. One of the darker and creepier revenge tales you can find in a kdrama. Its definitely been added to my list of favorite horror dramas that I’ve watched so far.

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DEEP (non-spoiler) Review

I wasn’t going to do a review on this movie since I’ve been trying to limit the amount of non-Korean horror content I post until the end of August, but since it just came out I figured it might be good to put one up in case someone was trying to feel out the movie and whether it was worth it to watch. I ended up watching it when it premiered on Netflix a couple of days ago, and after watching I knew that I maybe needed to focus a review on it.

Desperate for cash, Jane (Care Panisara Rikulsurakan) joins a study on insomnia that implants a chip to make sure you stay awake. The project spirals out of control as her and three other students try to get out.

Deep had so much potential to be a fairly decent movie, but ultimately fell flat. I wish I had liked the movie more, and I wish that it had pushed the boundaries a bit more. It had an interesting concept, and the cast did relatively well with the script they were given, so I know that if they had a more fleshed out story they’d be able to carry it. You could see where the movie was supposed to go at multiple times, but they never attempted to or tried to go in any of those directions. For the first half of the movie, it’s barely a thriller or even sci-fi movie. We don’t see much about the actual study of what the chip does. For the most part it’s just about a group of teens finally being free to be themselves and finding friendships with all this extra free time they have. During the pivotal turning points, it was boring and uninventive. It never kept you on the edge of your seat and the climax was equally as boring.

While the movie is obviously for a younger crowd, I don’t think that it even lives up for them. I know that if you had asked me if I enjoyed the movie when I was like 13 I’d still feel the same sense of emptiness out of it. I probably wouldn’t pick up on things like the weird dialogue and deliveries, but the thriller aspect of the movie was really not there, and I would have been as disappointed then as I am now.

Should you watch this? I’d say no, there are several other sci-fi thrillers that are much better that this can definitely be skipped. I’d say that unless you have teens or preteens who like this type of movie and want to find something you both can watch together knowing that there isn’t going to be any sex scenes or bad language, this isn’t the movie night for you. It is by far not the worst thing I’ve sit through but ultimately I’d say watch something else.

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Chaw (non-spoiler) Review

I am back to reviews after a week off (sorry about that, last week was a little too busy and I didn’t plan ahead well). As I hinted towards in my Creature Features post, today I am reviewing the 2009 dark comedy monster film, Chaw.

Chaw’s premise is super simple: a mutant pig terrorizes a small rural town that has seen no deaths in years, and a ragtag team is formed to stop it. Director/writer Shin Jeong Won stated in an interview that he came up with the idea to do the movie when he kept getting comedic scripts that didn’t match his comedy. He wanted to do a monster movie and was “intrigued by the idea of a familiar animal attacking and killing humans and wanted to create something out of this unexpectedness. But most of all, I wanted something funny and unique.” He picked a boar because it’s the most well known animal that creates the greatest amount of destruction. (source 1) (source 2).

Apparently, Shin and I would get along great, because I loved how the comedy was used in this film (and probably would have hated all those comedy scripts he was sent). For the most part, when we deal with the boar and its destruction, the comedy isn’t used or played up which allows a lot of the satire to lie in the quirkiness of the town and the characters outside of incidents with the boar. The comedy really just helps to form the backdrop of the town and the characters to give you a sense of who they are and why they are responding the way they are. Seriously, I’d watch a drama of just this town and all the people in it. I read someone comparing it to Twin Peaks, and I’d have to agree. If you combined Twin Peaks with The Host, you’d get Chaw if that helps you figure out what type of movie you’re getting yourself into.

The boar was a mixture of animatronic and CGI. As a lover of practicals, I really liked it a lot. The pig was created by an FX team in the US and it took three years to create along with all of the stuntmen and costumes. All the work paid off, as it works well and really helps some of the major scenes that the actors are with the creature in the same room and interacting with it. There is a bigger fight scene towards the middle where the CGI and animatronic was used, it integrates pretty nicely within the scene and doesn’t take away from what’s going on.

I think what also helped the movie to not feel too cheesy was that the design of the boar leans more to a realistic copy of a boar and focuses the scare more on it being a real life problem as opposed to trying to make it some weird hybrid sci-fi creature that looks unknown. They describe it as a mutant, but really it’s just a larger boar…that poses a much higher death count. I felt that it also helped keep the comedy’s focus on the characters, as there wasn’t a time you were supposed to find the boar a weirdly funny creature and helped it feel much more like an actual boar, which was essential for some of the later scenes.

I really suggest checking out Chaw if you have the chance. I don’t think it’s talked about a lot, mainly because it probably gets overshadowed by The Host and just the general lack of monster films coming out of South Korea. It’s fun, aware of its campiness, and integrates it well so that it doesn’t over saturate it. The characters are equally as fun and quirky and the main team works well together and are perfectly incompetent. They are a great found family with heart.

Chaw is currently streaming for free on Tubi with ads.

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