- Actors: Park Seo-jun, Ahn Sung-ki, Woo Do-hwan
- Director: Jason Kim
- Disc Format: Dolby, Subtitled, Surround Sound, Widescreen
- Language: Korean (DTS 5.1)
- Subtitles: English
- Region: Region A/1
- Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
- Number of discs: 2
- Studio: Well Go Usa
- Release Date: November 19, 2019
- Run Time: 129 minutes
The idea of
combining action with a demon possession narrative is not exactly original, although
this is the first time I have seen an MMA-fighting character punch the demon-possessed
in the face as a way of combating the evil. At the same time, although the
possession narrative may have added action elements, this never removes the
dramatic core of the story in the South Korean horror film, The Divine Fury,
which fittingly deals with issues of faith lost and regained. William Friedkin
has long said that he considers The Exorcist to be more of a film about faith
than horror, and The Divine Fury follows in that tradition. It just adds some enjoyable
fight choreography along the way.
The heart of The
Divine Fury is found in its brief prologue, during the childhood of the film’s
protagonist. After the protagonist loses his father in a tragic accident that occurred
while he was working as a police officer, the young boy curses God. As he grows
up, Yong-hu (Seo-jun Park) puts all of his energy and repressed anger into
fighting, and becomes a champion MMA fighter as a result. When this anger
begins to bleed out into his life outside of the ring, as well as literally
bleeding from a wound on his hand, Yong-hu reluctantly looks to a priest for
answers.
The priest that
Yong-hu looks to is Father Ahn (Sung-Ki Ahn), a man whose soft demeanor is
contrasted by his hardened abilities to combat pure evil. Worn down by years of
performing exorcisms, Father Ahn is in desperate need of assistance when he
meets Yong-hu, who has a unique capacity to fulfill that need. It turns out
that the wound on Yong-hu’s hand is actually the sign of stigmata, which proves
to be a deadly weapon against the intruding demons. But it is not as simple as
a single exorcism, as both Yong-hu and Father Ahn discover a darker source of
evil spreading the demon possessions. In order to stop the threat at its
source, the pair set out to hunt down the evil inhabiting a man named Ji-sin
(Do-Hwan Woo).
The film is at
its strongest in the quiet scenes of discussion between our two evil-fighting
protagonists. There is some decent supernatural horror, even if the CGI
occasionally lets down the other production elements. The action is enjoyable,
despite at times feeling a little unnecessary given the protagonist’s ability
to evacuate the demons with a mere touch. Where the movie never seems to falter
is in the relationship between the two heroes, one of which is still healing
from the loss of a father figure, and the other having the compassion and
capacity to fulfill that role.
The Divine Fury
is not a perfect film (although apparently a successful enough to warrant a
spin-off film with one of the supporting characters), but that did not stop me
from being invested. As much as I love action and horror, which this film
included to my enjoyment, it is the melodrama that repeatedly impresses me
within South Korean cinema, and The Divine Fury is no exception. Even if The
Divine Fury does not do everything perfectly, it does a lot more things than
the average film, and it does them all well enough.
The Blu-ray
release of The Divine Fury comes with two featurettes and a trailer. There is a
making-of featurette, as well as behind-the-scenes footage of the production.
An English-language track is also available, for those who don’t want to read
subtitles.
Entertainment Value:
8/10
Quality of
Filmmaking: 6.5/10
Historical
Significance: 6/10
Special Features: 3/10
No comments:
Post a Comment