Jong-gu is a dopey cop assigned to investigate a familiar murder. He's not very good at his job, is berated by his mother-in-law, ridiculed by his bosses and just an all around bumbler. But he loves his daughter, and that makes him the hero of the story. His small town, which if this was middle America, would have rusting cars and swing sets sitting in front of dilapidated farm houses, is suffering a spate of unexplained murder sprees. It seems to be disease related, as the murders are left in a boil covered zombie state. You would think they would call in regional or federal authorities, but nope, assigned to bumbling cop.
He learns of and immediately blames it on the quiet (dead silent actually) Japanese man who recently moved to town. They discover some weird shrines in a hidden room in the man's house, so the stressed out Jong-gu is convinced this man is responsible, and proceeds to kill the guy's dog. Oh, and there is the idea that the Japanese man is probably a ghost.
We get the idea, from a few key scenes, that the Japanese man may be there to investigate the murder spree, maybe he is familiar with it or suffered his own loss. But no, that's just clumsy misdirection. So, a weird little idea that I thought was going to explore Korea and its uncomfortable relationship with its former occupier, is dispensed with to go deeper into the weird shit.
They never seem to really ever investigate the crimes, even when they stack up. Family after family is found murdering each other, but Jong-gu continues to lead the investigation via his own misguided and misled gut feelings. But then his daughter shows signs of being possessed. Is he worried she is going to murder him and his family? He seems more concerned she is ill, than anything. But of course, in a drunken rage, he and his drinking buddies (dude, aren't you on duty?) try to murder the Japanese man, only to be attacked by another victim of this diseases / possession. They suffer horrible repercussions, but luckily (???) run the Japanese man down with their truck.
And then the shaman shows up. This was one of the best elements of the movie, a guy who seems a mix of actual experienced mystic and showman. And yet, in classic Exorcist style, just when it seems the shaman is going to drive the spirit from his daughter, Jong-gu freaks out and decides he should go with traditional medicine. Of course, its the wrong decision.
Meanwhile, in the background, in a few rare scenes, a beautiful woman with all the trappings of being a real ghost appears. She seems at odds with the Japanese man and the shaman, and suddenly things change direction (again!) and she might be the bad guy! But no, that is just another flip flop of the plotting and AGAIN we turn back to blaming the Japanese man, who is not actually dead from the car accident. And the daughter is not actually freed from the possession. And the shaman is probably... a bad guy? And the ghost is... by this point, I just gave up. There was not going to be any explanation that satisfied any of the plot threads that had been weaved into the story.
Oh, and the wailing of the title just seemed to be mainly from Jong-gu himself as he screamed his daughter's name either in grief, anxiety or drunken rages.
No comments:
Post a Comment