Project Wolf Hunting: Animated, Terminated

I'm not suggesting that the sadistic criminals aren't way smarter than the bumbling cops in Kim Hongsun's ultra-bloody prisoner-escape movie Project Wolf Hunting. But there are still some steps I would've taken once I'd gained control of the Frontier Titan ship whether I was overthrowing my captors at sea or guarding the extradited passengers from the Philippines to South Korea. No matter which side you're on why wouldn't you...

1. Throw the dead bodies overboard.
2. Keep the doctor nearby to administer first aid as needed.
3. Handcuff the pilot to the steering cabin.
4. Keep someone alive for repairs in the engine room.
5. Retain one form of communication with the outside world.

Then again, why do I bring up such concerns when there's maggot-mouthed supervillain (Choi Gwi-hwa) enters halfway through to turn the smiling sociopath (Seo In-Guk) — whom you thought was the primary nemesis — into an expendable secondary character? Though it doesn't reveal the fact until late in the game, Project Wolf Hunting is a monster movie, an over-the-top fright flick in which the evil mastermind is a ruthless gay sex addict who fatally gags the man giving him a blowjob and the final three survivors are mutants who undergone serious gene therapy. Who's behind it all? A pharmaceutical company called Aeon genetics. It's the type of situation that asks: Can one tough woman (Jung So-Min) actually save the world from another military experiment gone awry? Or were Ridley Scott and James Cameron wrong?

The Outlaws: Superheroes Without Capes

Although you'd hardly find The Outlaws listed under fantasy films, Kang Yoon-seong's energetic crime pic has a superhero of sorts at its center despite being based on a true story involving Chinese-Korean gang warfare circa 2007. Detective Ma (Ma Dong-seok) can outmaneuver, outmuscle, and outthink any crook on his beat, and anyone who doubts that is about to get a serious schooling. Small surprise his boss (Choi Gwi-hwa) constantly defers to his judgment while a local busboy pretty much idolizes him. He's got his weaknesses — broads, booze, and bribes — but you get the feeling he's always respectful of the first and generally mindful of the second. As for the money he extorts on the street, in The Outlaws, it's all in good fun. (I know. I know.)

Ma isn't the only character who comes across as a smarter, stronger humanoid from another world. His nemesis Jang Chen, (the fabulously wigged Yoon Kye-sang) is equally next-level — albeit on the evil side which always has a better stylist. As the new bully in town, Jang exudes the inhuman confidence that can accompany being a sadist willing to inflict pain for the pettiest of reasons. His primary backup boys share his cruel streak so when push comes to shove, it often involves sledge hammers or other tools of destruction. My main quibble with this 2017 blockbuster is that the women are basically hookers and hostesses. I count on Korean films to deliver strong female roles. When they don't, I'm sad. Perhaps Kang had Hollywood biases on the brain.

Train to Busan: Zombies on Track

People are brain-dead. People might as well be dead for all the meaning their lives have. We can never escape the dead. So many meanings behind zombies in pop culture, right? Yet in a weird way, they're all related in that they all have to do with personal responsibility. If we're brain dead, who's fault is it? If our lives have no meaning, who could best change that? If we're haunted by our pasts, how do we reconcile ourselves to them? Thrillingly, Yeon Sang-ho's Train to Busann addresses those big questions repeatedly instead of just serving us up the ravenous zombie, an image that frankly had started to decay.

What's changed isn't the zombies. Nope. They're still bloodthirsty, dangerous, infectious, crazed, and in this case, fast. It's the humans. In this very well-constructed, multi-layered script, Yeon has assembled a nice cadre of survivors: a ruthless investor (Gong Yoo), his sweet-natured daughter (Kim Soo-an), a big-hearted lug (Ma Dong-seok), his pregnant wife (Jeong Yu-mi), a shy baseball player (Choi Woo-sik), his girlfriend (Sohee) and a homeless guy (Choi Gwi-ha). You'll notice that all the women are defined by the men. A problem, agreed, but they're at least not completely helpless. Just watch that pregnant woman run!

And as the chemically-induced disease (caused by man's greed, what else?) spreads across South Korea (I'm guessing the North is safe), this small group (on a speeding commuter train out of Seoul) must fight with their paranoid peers (especially one deplorable businessman) as well as against the hungry hordes in order to survive. The rabidity of these zombies is something to behold, whether they're literally exploding through windows or racing up escalators, jumping on train cars or grasping on to the caboose (and then grasping on to the guy grasping on to the caboose, and then grasping on to the guy who's grasping on to the guy, etc.). The last time I saw a Korean horror movie this exquisite was Bong Joon-ho's The Host. Yes, Train to Busan is that good!