Grave Calling: Exhuma (2024) Review

 Director: Jang Jae-hyun

Notable Cast: Choi Min-sik, Kim Go-eun, Yoo Hai-jin, Lee Do-hyun, Kim Jae-chul, Kim Min-jun, Kim Byung-oh

"And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken" - Ecclesiastes 4:12

Horror films that deal with religious aspects have been around for decades, and I know titles are flooding to mind as you read this, so no need to name-drop anything. Faith and spirituality are truly remarkable and beautiful ways of life for many humans. Regardless of what you may or may not believe in, what awaits beyond death's door, with our understanding of this life, good or bad, can be exciting or terrifying. Since this is a spooky piece of cinema, as you can imagine, the supernatural forces that be aren't the friendliest lot around, and that is the very basis for Exhuma, the newest outing by acclaimed horror director Jang Jae-hyun, who previously won audiences over with his works Priests (2015) and Svaha: The Sixth Finger (2019). He continues his religion-themed horror here, this time delving into shamanism, among many other things, and what awaits the viewer embarking on this chilly and bloody adventure is a lot of thrills and a whole lot of pissed-off evil spirits.

Directors in Focus: Yoon Jong-bin | Nameless Gangster (2012) Review

Director: Yoon Jong-bin

Notable Cast: Choi Min-sik, Ha Jung-woo, Kwak Do-won, Ma Dong-seok, Kim Sung-kyun, Kim Hye-eun, Cho Jin-woong, Kim Young-sun

During the sort of boom of Korean cinema in the early 2010s, many films came out that I consider to be absolute modern classics, some even masterful pieces of genre film. Among them, and there is a decent amount, would be one in the gangster genre. It has one stellar ensemble cast, including the likes of Choi Min-sik, Kwak Do-won, Ma Dong-seok, who was becoming increasingly popular at the time, and the same could be said for Cho Jin-woong. It is no surprise, but most certainly welcome that Yoon's muse and long-time collaborator, Ha Jung-woo, would also star alongside Choi, making for a fierce dynamic duo that lights up the screen from start to finish. Nameless Gangster: Rules of the Time is a bona fide gangster film through and through, and it absolutely deserves to be placed among the best of the best from any period of time in cinema history.

It's the year 1990, and a massive war on crime has been declared by Busan police officials as corruption and criminal activity have soared to an all-time high. We bounce back and forth throughout the '80s and early '90s as we see the rise and fall of Choi Ik-hyun (Choi Min-sik), a customs officer who is near losing his job and completely down on his luck, until one fateful night when he finds himself upon a one-way ticket into the criminal underworld, in which he finds out that he just may be better at than he ever imagined. He teams up with a distant family member Choi Hyung-bae (Ha Jung-woo), who has been in the game for many years. The two hit it off, and Ik-hyun finds himself quickly rising to power, and the things it cost him along the way only seem to make him more powerful in the end. Things get twisty and turny, as you can imagine with any film in the genre, and lies and deceit come into play, and a lot of things are smashed into peoples' skulls as a result, and I mean a whole plethora of objects. I'll just say I can't imagine the amount of glass that a certain character gets embedded into his scalp and how long it must've taken to be dug out. Eesh.

The Mayor (2017)

Director: Park In-je
Notable Cast: Choi Min-sik, Kwak Do-won, Sim Eun-kyeong, Ra Mi-ran, Moon So-ri

Choi Min-sik is an actor whom I can always follow no matter the choices he makes as whether the film he is in is good or not and he always delivers. In The Mayor, Choi not only lives up to his wonderful reputation, but he gives one of the finest performances of his career yet.

The Mayor is a political thriller loaded with twists and turns at every corner. Choi Min-sik plays Byun Jong-go, the mayor of Seoul, who is running for a third term, and if elected he will be the first in the history of South Korea to do so. In his opposition is Yang Jin-joo, played effectively by Ra Mi-ran, a rough contender in the race to the top in what folds out in a total war.

Tiger, The (2016)

Director: Park Hoon-jung

Notable Cast: Choi Min-sik, Jung Man-sik, Kim Sang-ho, Sung Yoo-bin, Ren Osugi, Jung Suk-won, Ra Mi-ran

Sometimes, it’s hard to keep expectations in check when films are crafted by massively talented individuals. I did my best to keep my own hype down for The Tiger for just that reason. Director Park Hoon-jung delivered the jaw-dropping South Korean gangster flick New World just a few years ago and that was only the latest in a string of impressive films he has written and/or directed. Needless to say, even with tempered expectations there was a lot of hype behind this one, a film he wrote and directed, and with the powerful onscreen persona of Choi Min-Sik, it only went up. Fortunately, The Tiger not only lives up to these expectations, but easily surpasses them with a graceful flare as it delivers a dramatic film that entertains on the surface and layers itself so immensely that even days after the film had ended I feel like I’m discovering new things about it. Yeah, it is one of the best films of the year.