Monday, December 30, 2019

The Divine Fury(사자) Korean Film Thoughts







   The Divine Fury is a 2019 film that was directed and written by Kim Joo Hwan. This film stars rising star Park Seo Joon, Ahn Sung Ki, Woo Do Hwan, and, Choi Woo Sik. When the film was released, it made it to second place at the Korean box Office. Kim Joo Hwan and Park Seo Joon previously worked together on the film Midnight Runners.




    A man loses his father as a child to a demon. His father's death causes him to lose faith in God during a war between Priest and Demons. Somehow, he is given the power to kill demons in his hand after being possessed by a demon who used his thirst for revenge to control him. He soon teams up with an older Priest to fight a dark entity called the Dark Bishop.




   The Divine Fury to me, was an updated version of 2015's The Priests. Only this script tries to juggle action, religion, and drama all in 129 minutes… I won't say the the film took on more than it can handle but it did get lost in trying to please everyone. The trailer gives the impression that this film is an all out pure action film. As you dive into the film, you find quickly that this isn't the case. There's more discussion about religion than anything else. In between that you get some exorcism scenes. Nothing here is super extreme, especially if you have seen some of the American classic horror films. You should be able to put up with this level of horror. Korea does a good job paying tribute to what has already been an established cinema genre else where though. The Divine Fury doesn't pay the action side of things until toward the end of the film. I guess the Devil killing scenes were interesting enough until you get to the fun part. Tying up everything nicely to end the film felt a bit cheesy: Bad guy becomes juiced up finial boss and our main character fights his way to him for a final battle. Which was enjoyable for the most part… just not anything masterpiece defining. Some of you might be tripped out like I was over the Super Saiyan hand glowing in a blue light.[INSERT ME LAUGHING.] One reviewer compared The Divine Fury to the classic Blade films and I kinda agree in a way. Revenge always makes good story telling.







    The performances were top notch. There requires a certain head space to act in an Exorcism film. Plus you have to study latin for all those chant scenes. It's not an easy thing to do. I know as I once studied Latin when I was younger. No, I'm not Catholic nor did I enjoy my study of the language. Two of the main cast did a good job forming a father son relationship between each other. Feelings of nurturing could be seen in the scenes they had together. Including many of the scenes where they talked about religion and being a non believer. I would guess that deep down he had to be a believer in order to wield the power to kill demons.(which is suppose to come from God.) He was in denial most of the film much to many Catholic worshippers's dismay. Other cast members such as the villain were a nice touch. I just wish that we had gotten a bit more of a background story on this Dark Bishop. There was a point in the film where he himself was fearful of the dark power commanding him behind the scenes. This was something else the film doesn't expand on so I believe that there will be a continuation to this film. Looking at the ending also makes me think that the story isn't quite over yet.






     The Divine Fury could have used a few edits in the script. Even with this being said, the film's message rings clear about faith and a father's love. Two things viewers can relate to whether you're religious or not.



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