The Lion
The movie Lion (released on the 31st) has been considered the most anticipated film of Chungmuro this summer. Park Seo-joon, veteran Ahn Sung-ki, and new Udohwan, who are in the spotlight, overwhelm their competition in casting. This is a new film that will be released in two years by director Kim Joo-hwan of the hit film Youth Police, which surprised the theater with 5.65 million people in the summer of 2017.
Park Seo-joon, a martial arts player who lost his father in an accident as a child, suffers from hallucinations and nightmares that may have been caused. One day he wakes up with a nightmare and finds a deep wound on his palm. When the palm bleeding does not stop even after hospital treatment, Yonghu visits Father Ahn Sung-ki, a Kuma priest from the Vatican, and realizes that special forces are hidden in his wounded hands. Yonghu, who doubted and resented God but joined the priest Ahn's Kuma ceremony, finally confronts the black bishop (Udohwan), the agent of the evil spirit.
Five out of five, half of them.
Lion of Iron Chef fists ... I'm in trouble
It is like a Bible without Genesis. How did a man who abandoned God after his father's death become a Kuma priest? The Lion does not show convincingly the change of the hero.
The former fighter, Yonghu, cannot sleep with evil spirits; the reason he was possessed by a shaman who was good was because he ate his mind. The way occult films deal with good and evil is too flat.
The dragon queen is given the ability to chase evil spirits one day: the proof of the presence of Faith that God showed to him who did not believe in God. The gumese rituals of evil and good are also bored compared to the Black Priests (2015).
The Lion, which is also a thriller film, takes the wrong way and evaporates the last remaining chills. The Iron Chef fist of the Kuma priest, which came out five minutes before the end, was close to the grammar of the fantasy Action hero.
The only thing that remains memorable after the film is the bride and fashion who became bikers; as the work shakes, neither Ahn Sung-ki nor Park Seo-joon are seen. Like the director's hit film Youth Police, it seems that there are many mountains to overcome even creating sequels, which should solve the passive use of female characters.
Exorcism Movies with a Laugh
The genre of Exorcism is no longer unfamiliar in Korea. In the film, 'Black Priests' and 'Gukseong' (2016) are the main works. The drama also covered the Kuma ritual on TVN's "Fighting Ghosts" (2016) and OCN's "Prist" (2018). As the work accumulated, the audience's eyes increased as much. There is also a great desire for good Exorcism content. Lion is a movie that has emerged in this situation.
Expectations have fallen apart, with the show running over two hours, but all that remains is Ahn Sung-ki's "Ajagg" and Park Seo-joon's "Fire Fist". Above all, Remady is poor: only the appearance of Ahn Sung-ki and Park Seo-joon getting rid of evil spirits in the same way is repeated several times. The first time, if interesting, is quickly boring, and the way it is is not much different from the Kuma rituals that have been featured in numerous Exorcism movies. Easily exterminated demons do not leave fear. Only the good performances of the state and assistants are bright.
The character charm also falls: the sex marks () on the right hand of Park Seo-joon play a key role in the film, but there is a lack of explanation for this. The setting of meeting and awakening a father who died as a child only reminds me of a 1990s comic film, as well as lacking a background setting for the Kuma priest, Ahn Sung-ki. Udohwan, a black bishop, turns into a demon in the final duel with Park Seo-joon, but only a laugh comes out in a crude makeup.
Is it a loser or a bummer?
No matter how good the ingredients are, if you put them in a bowl without considering the balance and harmony of the taste, it will be a problem of 'lion'. Drama, occult, mystery, Action, and Superhero Movie water were overly greedy for many genres, so it became rather a shave. Rather than the new fun of genre mixing, I have lost the familiar fun of individual genres, and although fear is relatively high, it is weak to define as an occult horror.
The lack of organicity between genres is due to Remady's poor performance. The internal awakening and reflection are not well revealed until the martial arts player Yonghu realizes the transcendent power given by God through childhood trauma and eventually accepts the religious calling. The movie's attitude to persuade Yonghu's growth and the possibility of genre variation at once with the ambassador "Everything is Faith" is very easy.
The last duel with the vicar of evil spirits, the Black Bishop, was over-imagined; it is embarrassing to see superpower Action like Superhero Movie pop out after spleen all the way before. If you think you have been running for two hours to see this Action scene, it is also a shame that the resurgence of the director's previous work, Youth Police, has disappeared.
Park Seo-joon shows his acting skills and his steadfastness. Ahn Sung-ki brings the drama to life with his distinctive humanity and ease, the most attractive character he has played in recent years. I want to see the ingenious combination of the two people again, and the movie reveals its will through the epilogue, but it is doubtful whether the sequel will come out.