Such a frustrating disappointment

I'll tell you why so serious

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

A good movie but it is not a great movie. This movie would have been a 10/10 if it was a little shorter. 2 hours and 30 minutes is really pushing it. They could and should have cut off some of the talking scenes and "comedic" scenes and make this movie just 2 hours. It would have been perfect. This movie is slightly uneven because it is very dark and serious, but then there would be weird comedic scenes such a a group of villagers beating up a zombie-like person "Shaun of The Dead" style. This scene goes on and on. This movie has an amazing ending though, and it is very bleak. It deals with Satan, Angels, discrimination, and morality. There is no light in this movie. This movie starts off in darkness and ends in total darkness.

The biggest strength the Wailing has is how deeply entrenched the story is in the setting. This film would not work in any other setting, because the story needs a town in South Korea to work, as the entire plot relies on South Korea's culture and history.The story begins as a police drama mystery, with our protagonist, Jong Goo, a bumbling, clumsy police officer and family man, who is confronted by a sudden increase in violence and murder in the town, which is seemingly linked to the arrival of a mysterious Japanese man. But as the film progresses, the story transforms into a supernatural horror film that is deeply entrenched in both Buddhist and Christian ideas of demons and the supernatural. When Jong Goo's daughter gets sick with what he believes to be a sickness linked to the supernatural, Jong enlists the help of both a Catholic deacon and a local Shaman to help him figure out what is going on, and how he can stop it.The horror aspects of the film truly shine out, with a next-to zero percent reliance on jump scares, the creepiness of the film comes through in slow pans, confronting gory scenes, closeups of things that aren't quite what they seem, and a sense of dread that builds consistently over the 2 1/2 hour running time.Right up to the end credits is a guessing game of who is responsible for the occurances of the film, and when the truth is finally revealed, it ties the entire film together. What once seemed contradictory now makes sense within the context of the full film.In conclusion, if you want something that will hold your attention for 2 1/2 hours, this film is a fantastic use of your time, and will keep you engaged for the full run time.

The Wailing may look like a generic and light-hearted horror movie on the surface. However, by delving deeper into the story's plot, evidences of satire that is related to the second World War and the Japanese invasion of Korea can be seen clearly. At the center of the satire, is the Japanese man who represents the war era Japan that had invaded Korea, resulting in the death of many men, women, and children and the emergence of "comfort Women" which was in reality the prostitution of young women and even girls. For instance, the young woman in white may represent the Comfort Women. There is even a a scene in which the Japanese man chases the woman in the jungle. And in another scene, he attacks another woman in an attempt to rape her. There are also other traces of rape and sexual abuse in women. For example, most women seem to have contracted a disease that is somewhat similar to that of an STD that has also transferred into men. And the policeman's daughter's thighs are bruised. Later, she also confesses that she has met the Japanese man. Moreover,the Japanese man's cleansing practice in the waterfall may represent Japan's attempt to cleanse its past, but to no avail. The whole village and maybe even the policeman stands for Korea, and the people are the nation. Nobody trusts the Japanese man, nobody likes him, but no matter how hard they try, they fail to drive him out of the village; he is there to stay and to make sure that everyone is consumed. One by one, the families fall victim to the Japanese man (or the Devil) who fall upon them like a disease. The disease then spreads until it consumes the whole village. Finally, the Shaman is a representation of traitors that allowed Japan to take over the country for their own personal profit. All in all, the movie has skillfully illustrated the horrors of the war, and the feeling of helplessness and darkness that takes over a country during such a period.

If you like Asian horror, you probably aren't looking for the equivalent of Abbott & Costello Meet The Spooky Chick With Long Hair. That's close to what Hong-jin Na has done with his half-parody, half-serious take on his supernatural material. He's more serious than not, but he's also fatally hung his tale on a cop protagonist who's a pudgy bumbling wimp. We're meant to see multiplying local horrors as the forge that helps officer Jong-goo man up, if not in the eyes of his bored wife then at least to save his cutie pie kid. He's determined to scream and run for it like a Korean Lou Costello.This prefab spook house is filled with slapstick, zombies, ghosts, plagues, exorcisms and gore, but Na's predictable and it's always obvious where he's going next. He has an OK eye, a plodder's pacing and a manga's paint-by-number characters. His action sequences typically involve the same repeated pratfalls -- he's no Yeon Sang-ho! He does, however, pull out all the stops for a berserk tongue-in-cheek shamanic ritual that's the only memorable sequence in the film.