Along with the Gods: The Last 49 Days (2018)

Director: Kim Yong-hwa

Notable Cast: Ha Jung-woo, Ju Ji-hoon, Kim Huang-gi, Ma Dong-seok, Kim Dong-wook, Lee Jung-jae

Late last year, South Korea released Along with the Gods: The Two Worlds throughout the world and it was met, generally, with solid praise. It was a raucous cinematic ride, blending genres almost willy-nilly into a provocatively entertaining experience that was equal parts morality tale, fantasy adventure, and franchise starter. It’s this last element of The Two Worlds that brings us to its (first?) sequel, Along with the Gods: The Last 49 Days. After the original film left off on an open ending meant to tease that the three guardians would continue their plight, it was only expected that a follow up film was imminent and, surprise, surprise, here we are less than a year later with the next one. Sporting the same genre bending style and outlandish popcorn entertainment meets message film, fans of the first one are definitely going to want to leap back into the world of afterlife trials and fantasy adventure. Granted, this sequel doesn’t quite find the effective balance of the first, it does have its own brilliant moments leaving The Last 49 Days as grand cinematic entertainment with a heart of gold.

Along with the Gods: The Two Worlds (2017)

Director: Kim Yong-hwa

Notable Cast: Cha Tae-hyun, Ha Jung-woo, Ju Ji-hoon, Kim Hyang-gi, Lee Jung-jae, Kim Dong-wook, Do Kyung-soo, Jang Gwang, Jung Hae-kyun, Oh Dal-su, Im Won-hee, Lee Joon-hyuk, Kim Su-an, Ye Soo-jung

The initial trailers certainly intrigued me, but Along with the Gods: The Two Worlds was a film that existed as a huge question mark for me. On one hand, it appealed to the big scale fantasy adventure fan in me – the person that continually watches all of the CGI driven popcorn flicks that continually burst out of the Chinese film industry, and on the other hand, it appealed to me that it would contain the strong production values and execution that the South Korean market is known for. Could the two sides match up though? As the credits rolled on this epic film, after an almost two-and-a-half-hour runtime, I looked around at the audience in the theatrical showing we were attending. There was a wide variety of emotions. Patrons wiping tears from their eyes after the heart wrenching finale, giggles and excited talking about the action set pieces, and parents speaking with their kids about philosophical edge that the film used to drive its narrative. Along with the Gods: The Two Worlds is a film that resonates on a variety of levels. Not only does it manage to be a fun action adventure film, but it also works as an examination of the complexities of religious and philosophical viewpoints on a character living in a nuanced world.  It’s a film that occasionally has to warp through some of the more fascinating and subtle aspects of its script for the sake of bigger moments, but Along with the Gods represents a truly invigorating navigation of genre exploration and blockbuster style entertainment.