The Wailing

I 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.

After catapulting himself into the league of South Korea's brightest up-n-coming filmmakers with his extremely polished & mercilessly violent directional debut and then following it up with another thriller that was more or less a misfire, director Na Hong-jin makes a splendid return to form after six years of inactivity, and delivers a cinema that's drenched in blood, sickness & devilry.

The story of The Wailing unfolds in a small South Korean village where a mysterious illness begins to spread & claim many lives after the arrival of a strange Japanese man in the nearby mountains. Investigating the case is a police officer who becomes all the more involved after his own daughter begins exhibiting similar symptoms and enlists the help of a shaman to solve the mystery before its too late.

Written & directed by Na Hong-jin, The Wailing finds the budding filmmaker stepping into the realms of supernatural horror and features numerous elements that made his first film an instant classic. It is a considerable improvement over Hong-jin's previous film, plus his direction exhibits more confidence & comfort this time. The script is just as impressive although it still could've used a bit more refinement.

The film doesn't hold back on violence & gore and keeps the element of doubt alive until the very end. Also admirable is how successfully it manages to force its viewers to switch their allegiance from time to time and keeps them in the dark throughout its runtime. Humour is brilliantly utilised whenever it's required but the tone is grim for the most part and only intensifies as the plot nears its conclusion.

The technical aspects are finely executed. The rural setting & isolated surroundings provide a big enough canvas for the horror to play out. Camera-work is expertly carried out, filming each n every moment in fine detail. Editing is definitely a highlight, given the unpredictable nature of its plot in addition to unforeseen twists n turns, and despite its 156 minutes runtime, it is never boring and is actually cleverly paced from beginning to end.

Coming to the performances, the entire cast chips in with apt contributions in their given roles and play their part responsibly. Kwak Do-won plays the police officer investigating the mystery illness & killings and although a comic relief at first, he wises up as the plot progresses. Hwang Jung-min is in as a shaman and goes bonkers with his role. But the two most measured inputs comes from Jun Kunimura & Chin Woo-hee who play the Japanese stranger & a mysterious woman respectively.

On an overall scale, The Wailing is a fresh, fascinating & ferocious entry in the world of horror that makes terrific use of its atmosphere & supernatural elements to deliver a thoroughly unsettling & consistently engaging experience. There are, however, times when it may leave you a little lost or unsure of what's happening but the interest is never lost for once and only gains momentum as it heads towards its long-awaited finale. A work of mythic weirdness that's diabolical in every sense of the word, The Wailing comes highly recommended.

Some 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?

I expected this to be a slow pace,d very atmospheric horror film. Instead, I was surprised by how crazy and intense it is. It never really allows you to completely wrap your head around it because it is constantly pulling the rug from under you. The cast does a great job from verging in both drama, horror, and even comedy, which the film is able to balance with the other genres very well, for the most part. Because of that the film sometimes feels a little messy and a little jumbled in its very ambitious aims, and as a result it suffers. I wouldn't call it a great film, but I do recommend it simply for the sheer effort and ambition on display here. Certainly a horror film to remember.

Here 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.