Revelations: Serial Killers Precede the Apocalypse

Director and screenwriter Yeon Sang-ho is shaping up to be a pretty interesting filmmaker. His breakout movie Train to Busan is one of the best zombie flicks out there while his equally delightful Psychokinesis gives the superhero genre a welcome refresh. Now with Revelations, he's delivering new life to serial killer thrillers. For in this strangely suspenseful feature, a recently released murderer (Shin Min-jae) with a dented head isn't the baddest bad guy on screen; that title goes to the zealous, pouty-mouthed pastor (Ryu Jun-yeol) whose mental collapse includes a string of misguiding if career-making hallucinations. Pursuing both men is a newly appointmed violent crimes detective (Shin Hyeon-bin) who has a history of her own with the former and a intuitive scepticism about the latter.

This structural shakeup — convict, evil; man of god, more evil — definitely keeps you on your toes, as we coast through rain-soaked abductions, almost-kills, and ghostly flashbacks. I also appreciate how Yeon has included a court psychologist to inject objective logic into story that's shaped in part by apparitions from the past, like a dead sister, a one-eyed monster, and — naturally — Jesus Christ. My only question at the end was a simple one: What's the powder in those packets consumed by the detective? Is it Fun Dip? Energy drink mix? Migraine medicine? Magic dust? A combo pack? Whatever it was, she might consider seeing a doctor in order to get a more effective prescription.

Alienoid: The Return to the Future: ET2

If you missed my earlier review, I thoroughly enjoyed the first Alienoid movie last year. Why that flick didn't land on my top ten list for 2023 may be simply because I sometimes make faulty judgments in my annual "best of" roundups. And so, I was excited about the return of this sci-fi franchise: A world where human bodies double as ET prisons and robots work for good. Did I want to see more of the star-crossed lovers (Kim Tae-ri and Ryu Jun-yeol), the humanoid cats (Lee Si-hoon and Shin Jeong-geun), and the two comically cocky sorcerers (Yum Jung-ah and Jo Woo-jin)? You bet I did. I even welcomed the addition of a blind swordsman (Jin Seon-kyu) and the expanded role of his equally skilled descendant, a customs-officer/auntie (Lee Hanee) who's been waiting her whole life to fight alien invaders on behalf of our planet Earth.

Now, time travel movies are tricky. But time travel sequels that recount the exact same story while incorporating different elements are even trickier. Meaning Alienoid 2 does get confusing and redundant depending on who you are as writer-director Choi Dong-hoon flips between the 14th and 21st centuries. New viewers will never truly understand all this business about the red gas bubbles. Old viewers are left to utter joyously "Oh, that's right..." as memories of A1 plot-points get triggered. Like Park Hoon-jung's The Witch: Part 2, A2 doesn't quite blow the door of its predecessor via a reorienting return. But a fresh coat of paint on something you like can sometimes suffice for an evening's pleasure.

Alienoid: Star Wars for Warlocks

Just like there are good humans and bad humans, there are good aliens and bad aliens. And good sorcerers and bad sorcerers too. In other words, the eternal, universal battle between Good and Evil plays out on multiple, mindbending levels throughout blockbuster auteur Choi Dong-hoon's deliriously fun Alienoid. What else can you expect when humans possessed by imprisoned aliens and aliens masquerading as everyday humans find themselves in conflict with each other, the law, and medieval merchant magicians who are also masters of mixed martial arts. That the film is able to bounce effortlessly back and forth in time — while throwing a good-cop/bad-cop twist into the mix — is another truly remarkable aspect of this irresistible sci-fi fantasy.

I'd also like to say that when a film runs well over two hours, I sometimes break it into parts, like two acts over two days or even a series of webisodes that'll last a week. But with Alienoid, I watched from start to finish as the interplanetary guard (Kim Woo-bin) and his sidekick "program" Thunder (Kim Dae-myung) handled everything from childcare (Choi Yu-ri) to spaceship dogfights to bounty hunting a rogue rebel in the present; and as a bumbling wizard (Ryu Jun-yeol) and his humanoid cats (Shin Jeong-geun, Lee Si-hoon) collaborated with a gun-toting heroine (Kim Tae-ri) and an odd couple of occultists (Yum Jung-ah, Jo Woo-jin) to combat the same dastardly extraterrestrials centuries ago.

Now about that ending...

The King: A Royal Pain in the Ear

If I were in a generous frame of mind, I would say that Han Jae-rim's The King was fashioned in the spirit of Citizen Kane with its prolonged opening monologue or was nodding to early Korean films like Crossroads of Youth, which — though silent — were often screened with a byeonsa (a live storyteller) who supplied narration and dialogue in real-time. But to elevate Han's movie with such associations would be dishonest because The King ultimately comes across as an inexplicably recorded film treatment that's been provided with high-glam accompanying visuals. At least 80 percent of the time, we're forced to listen to lead character, corrupt attorney Park Tae-Soo (Jo In-sung), as he jabbers on and on about his career while Kim Woo-hyung's luxe cinematography attempts to make up for the lack of dialogue via gorgeous images. There's not a scene that isn't gloriously shot, even when the action gets downright nasty. (You may be forgiven for closing your eyes when the rabid dogs eat men alive.)

I'm not sure Han is entirely to blame for the film's failure though. What's also missing is a riveting performance at its center. Whereas Han's earlier (and much better) The Show Must Go On was grounded by the eternally impeccable Song Kang-ho as a mobster consumed by work, The King has at its center a cypher: one well-dressed but underdeveloped lawyer who registers more as lost than conflicted. He's neither as intriguing as his nemesis — and boss — Han-Kang Sik (Jung Woo-sung) nor as inherently likable and dynamic as his sidekick and lackey Doo-il (Ryu Jun-Yeol). And since neither of these guys talk nearly as much as Tae-soo, we're constantly resenting a soundtrack monolopolized by an anti-hero who turns into antimatter right before our very eyes.

Little Forest: And Then She Cooked

Creators who think there is one right way of doing things aren't creators at all. They're low-ranking soldiers and well-behaved clerks who happen to work in art. So here's to director Yim Soon-rye and his Little Forest, a fascinating little film about a 20-something who retreats home after failing to make it in the big city. Seeking conflict? There aren't any major confrontations between the characters. How about romance? No sparks fly between the ingenue (Kim Tae-ri) and either of her friends from high school — a young man (Ryu Jun-yeol) and a young woman (Jin Ki-joo) who don't have any chemistry between them either. Crackling dialogue? Actually, the best parts of Little Forest are the endless shots of food being prepared with allusive voiceover. And yet, despite all these "shortcomings," Little Forest is a movie that definitely works.

You'd be surprised how much can be conveyed by drying persimmons and frying cabbage pancakes and hand-delivering creme brulee. The long stretches of narration (which one can easily imagine being written off as "too talky" in a screenwriting class) inform us that our heroine's passion for cooking has been inherited from her mom (Moon So-ri), a single parent who wasn't always there when she was needed but maybe was there for her daughter enough. And as art goes, it's more than enough. It's delicious.

Believer: What You See Is What You Get

Visually, Lee Hae-young's Believer has all the components you'd expect from a thriller: the overhead shot of the car zooming down a lonely road, the stylish high heels stepping out of a car door, the close-up of someone doing a line of white powder, the helpless victim handcuffed to a chair... But despite the signature images, the endless backstabbing, the ever-complicating exposition, Believer never really manifests a world. I never sensed a camaraderie among the detectives, never bought the world-weariness of its lead cop (Cho Jin-woong), never cared about the two-faced naif (Ryu Jun-yeol), never felt the urgency of finding the mastermind druglord behind all the crimes.

In such a frame of mind, I watched Believer unfold with an indifference that made the subtitles somewhat irrelevant. Maybe the film would've been more cryptic if all I had to go on was the sight of shirtless men ranting, deaf cooks signing, suited men and women shooting, a poor dog bleeding. Certainly, the spectacle would make for a nice background when listening to an album by The Detroit Cobras or vintage Isaac Hayes. At times. But would I even look? Or would I close my eyes and feel the bass as a movie of my own making plays inside my tired head? No filmmaker myself, I'd probably be better served by checking out the original that inspired it: Johnny To's Drug War.

Heart Blackened: One Rich Thriller

My problem with prenuptial agreements is that the person marrying into money is as a rule a less corrupt person than the person who's already loaded. Sure, that fiance or fiancee may be a gold-digger but those who occupy the top 1% of the economic food-chain are infinitely more likely to be delusional narcissists who believe their wealth accords them a certain prerogative when it comes to... oh, pretty much anything. Absolute power may corrupt absolutely but plenty of money corrupts plenty too. You can see just how much in Jung Ji-woo's Heart Blackened, a well-executed thriller/courtroom-drama in which a CEO (the ever-dependable Choi Min-sik) goes to extreme lengths to defend his amoral daughter (Lee Soo-kyung) in a murder case that's left him a widower again. Did his wife (Lee Ha-ni) cheat on him? Yes! Is he glad she's dead? No. Truly, the only thing that bothers him is when he can't get his way.

He's got plenty of foils: a fiery prosecutor (Park Hae-joon) who can't be bought, his wife's videographer lover (Ryu Jun-Yeol) who seemingly can't be bought, and a dogged defense attorney (Park Shin-hye) who can be bought but maybe not trusted. Well, the world is a buyer's market so this tough tycoon is going to use all of his resources to get what he wants — not once, but twice. He'll lose some things along the way — whatever happened to that diamond-encrusted watch? — but you're left with little doubt that if he himself lands in prison garb for any stretch of time, he'll be back in a bespoke three-piece suit off Savile Row before you can say "The justice system should treat all people equally" three times in a row. Naturally, the same can be said about his daughter, although her fashion choices would be more adventurous.

P.S. The original Korean-language title of Heart Blackened is Silence, so this particular bit of translation is strange to say the least.