User reviews

'The Wailing (2016)' is an affair that sticks with you, leaving you to turn it over and over in your mind long after its credits have rolled. It's a constantly evolving experience, moving through several somewhat distinct acts defined only by your understanding of its plot's events. This is evidence of its keen awareness of its audience, as it is able to predict what you're thinking in order to set up a blindsiding reveal. A lot of the narrative is ambiguous, despite a fairly concrete end, and it makes for an extremely enigmatic watch, one in which your assumptions are always shifting and, somehow, never quite correct. When you think back on the piece, you realise how meticulously crafted it is right from the opening shot. It's exactly what it needs to be, even if it does sometimes seem slightly meandering and you can certainly feel its length. It's never even close to boring, constantly keeping you engaged and occasionally wrenching you to the edge of your seat. It's the kind of film that sneaks up on you; you don't realise your heart is in your mouth until it's too late. It's as much a mystery as it is a horror, but it's ultimately rather frightening. It has moments of wince-inducing gore, creepy imagery and unbearable tension but it's its overall effect that affects you the most. It's difficult to describe, really, but to say the picture is ominous is an understatement. Its only real flaw is the fact that some of its odd comedy, particularly in its earlier sequences, detracts ever-so-slightly from the sincerity of its narrative. Still, even this contributes to the story's decidedly off-kilter vibe. When it comes down to it, the thing is absolutely brilliant, a distinct and distinguished movie unlike most others of its kind. It gets under your skin and wriggles around for a long time. 8/10

Some movies have a coherent plot that is told in a non-straightforward fashion, or that is open to several interpretations, or that leaves out some parts requiring the audience to fill-in (e.g. an open end), and possibly this filling-in can be done in more than one way. These movies require several viewings and considerable thought to make sense.

After watching The Wailing for the first time, I had the impression that it was this kind of movie. However, after watching it again, pondering it, and then reading and watching attempts by various people to interpret/explain it, I have come to a different conclusion. Namely, this movie does not have a coherent underlying plot. No matter how you shift the pieces of the puzzle in an attempt to recreate a coherent narrative, some pieces will never fit together, and not due to your incompetence, but because the underlying story is - possibly intentionally, possibly not - fundamentally inconsistent. It's like one of those optical illusions or Escher drawings that appear to describe a physical object, but in fact don't make physical sense.

Accordingly, whether one enjoys this movie or not boils down to whether one can be content with a movie that is technically well-made (cinematography, acting, costumes, etc.), but (a) its plot makes no sense, and (b) it is told in a deceptive way as to lure you into thinking that the plot would make sense if only you gave the matter sufficient thought, thus leaving you with a lingering, irritating feeling of dissatisfaction and confusion.

And maybe this is precisely the point of the movie: rather than telling a story, its purpose is to instill in the audience a feeling of confusion in the face of a sequence of events that almost, but not quite, makes sense. Much like life at times, no?

There were a few twists and tense moments, but it was a long, drawn out movie, with little to sustain it. The scenes with the shaman were the most entertaining, but the last 30 minutes I was yelling "come on already!"

Watching this, quite a few things may confuse you. The story is not easy at all. It is about good and evil though. It is about how we perceive the world and what we make of it. It is about many things, a lot of you may experience and see, that the person next to you may not see.

The movie is made to be watched more than once. I had heard about the Wailing and how good it supposedly is - well now I can leave the supposedly part away. It is as good as people say it is. And it is another example of south korean filmmaking that not few see as a powerhouse in the world right now (some may argue it has been for quite some time now). This movie is another example for just that.

It is also a movie about prejudice, about how small our world is and how we react to an outside "influence". How things collapse and what society is capable of ... again so many things to discover here. Now that being said, it doesn't mean you will like the movie. Or that if you don't like it, it doesn't mean you have no taste in movies. That is the great thing about films. We all have different tastes and we all value things different. You may just want to see explosions. And that's more than fine. But it's not what you'll get here ... not for the weak hearted or squeamish just to be clear though ... this is brutal .. to watch!

This will be the first review i'm writing, Because i'm enthralled by this piece of art. Gokseong is directed by Hong-jin Na who previously have made very fine movies like yellow sea and chaser. But the setting of this movie is different from those movies, It kind of felt like Memories of Murder in darker tone. This is the story of a village, where people are suffering from a mysterious diseases which seems like some kind of virus and this ends up killing them, and in the middle of somewhere a Japanese stranger seems to be involved in this. Now, i'm not going to say more than that about the story , and i suggest you to not watch the trailer which doesn't do justice to the movie and stay away from any possible spoiler. It is one of the best horror movies i have seen in long time, it doesn't have jump scares. But what this movie does, it slowly grows on you, you will be confused, conflicted, disgusted while watching this. Somewhere you will make a choice, a perspective to the way things are going and possibly will be wrong. So i strongly suggest you to watch this movie if possible in a secluded environment and if possible alone. P.S.- It has the what i think is the best exorcism scene shown in any movie.

Here is a movie that got a tremendous amount of praise from critics and viewers as being a memorable horror film. I thought it was well filmed and acted, especially the child actress. This might be the most intense performance a child actor has given on film. The story definitely made me care about the characters, and when it was over, I wanted to know more about what I had just watched. However, after taking time to reflect and review some of the interpretations that have been put out there, I've decided that The Wailing didn't quite meet my expectations. It was hard to follow, and most people seem to understand that the director wanted some things to be intentionally vague. But what bothered me is that I felt like the story kept introducing new plot points that didn't seem connected to what had come before. When I got to the end and saw what other people had to say about what was going on, it didn't do anything to deepen my appreciation of the movie. It's long, too, and it feels like it meanders, even if everything does somehow tie together at the end. I just didn't respond that strongly to it. I think some of the imagery will stick with me, but I don't feel like I enjoyed it enough to want to watch it back. I can't say that I don't recommend it, because obviously a lot of people really enjoyed it, I just didn't happen to be one.

Painfully long. Several really stupid moments in the plot. Scenes where the oafish cop (who really should not have been a cop, it would have made more sense) emotes in overwrought ways. Director Na Hong-jin seems to elongate and repeat everything, and I thought that the bloat took away from the horror. I also didn't care much for the Japanese demonization and tossing the word Jap around, even though I understand at least a little about the painful history. The cinematography was solid and the final scene was pretty cool, but it came way too late. This film should have been an hour shorter and its script tuned to make more sense.

About 40 minutes into the movie, I stopped to look at how much time was left and was actually RELIEVED to see that there was still so much left. That's how engaging and interesting the story was for me.

Before watching the movie I read one review on here that said it was a "smorgasbord" of genres (it was a positive review), but it doesn't really feel like it. I mean, yes, I can see it, but the storytelling is so fluid and well written that the multiple genre aspects didn't feel out of place at all. It works. It works so well that I almost feel like it's redundant to point out that there are "so many genres."

I found the second half of this movie quite similar to The Witch. Not necessarily in terms of the storyline, but the pace, the severity, the terror. Both movies are quite psychological. But The Wailing delivers somewhat of a more complex storyline.

Cinematography was breathtaking. Jun Kunimura was ridiculous (in a good way). All the actors were on point. I'm not going to point out or mention "Asian horror" here (although, technically I just did I guess, lol). I just don't think that it's necessary to pigeonhole this movie into anything other than what it is; a great horror.

"The Wailing" (aka "Goksung") is a South Korean pseudo-horror movie, and that alone already counts well in favor for the movie, as South Korea has a long, and most impressive, track record for making horror movies. The movie runs a bit over two and a half hours, but it actually manages to remain interesting and captivating throughout the course of this time frame.

The story is about a strange disease that spreads in a small rural settlement in South Korea. This disease causes rashes and blisters, and eventually drives the infected to kill those he or she loves in blind rage. A local policeman becomes involved in the case and finds himself deep in a very strange mystery, which involves supernatural elements and it is a race against time to find the culprit and the source of this bizarre sickness.

I will say that the story is good and interesting, especially because director Hong-jin Na managed to build up the movie in such a way that the audience is given bits and pieces of information throughout the course of the movie, and thus keeps the audience in the dark and trying to put the pieces together themselves and trying to figure out who is the cause of it all.

And just when you think you have it all figured out, something happens and the movie takes an unforeseen turn, which just further keeps the audience on edge and trying to make sense of it all. That was a nice thing in the movie, because it kept it from being predictable, and it forces the audience to actually do some thinking throughout the course of the movie.

The acting in the movie was quite good, which is a common trait seen in South Korean movies, so there were no surprise there. As always it is an enjoyment to sit down and watch another South Korean movie.

Without giving anything away, then I will say that just as I thought I had it all figured out, then the director opted for something else entirely towards the ending, and threw me fully of the trail. I had not seen that ending coming, not by a long shot. But, personally, I didn't care much for how the movie ended and the realization of what was really going on. It was just a bit too much, to far out there for my taste. Especially since the movie had been so good and intriguing up to that point. It just took a nosedive with that unveiling, and as such I am forced to rate the movie only a six out of ten stars rating.

That being said, don't get me wrong, because "The Wailing" really is a good movie, it is just that I didn't enjoy the ending in the least bit. But if you enjoy Asian movies and South Korean movies in particular, then "The Wailing" is a solid horror/mystery movie which definitely is worth watching.

I remember that I had a gut(Korean traditional exorcism by mudang like shaman) when I was 13. Back then, I was the most weakest student in my class. So my grandma always worried about my health and I met mudang with my grandma. After finishing ceremony, I got to her house by old truck. she said " Don't look back" "If you look back, bad spirits follow us and it will be harmful to us".and then I closed my eyes tightly until I got to her house.Because It was so sacred.

In a word about this movie, It feels like I looked back even if my grandma warned me.

That's all I can't say anymore.

You can find every good perspective of Korean movies. Moreover, You can taste a lot of texture of flavor such as Comedy, Horror(Exorcism,Gore,Traditional),philosophy(Religion, identity,suspicion),thriller. This movie is so ambitious. but It is very successful.

If you are interested in this movie, You should watch Bulshinjiok(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1535472/) before this movie. It will be helpful to understand Korean traditional ceremony and shamanism also you can see improvements of Korean movie.

Okay so I guess it makes more sense to watch the movie in its original language. I watched it in English and it looked forced. I had high to very high expectations from this movie (on the lines of I saw the Devil) but it was a huge disappointment. The first thing that I have a problem with is the length of the movie. It had long pauses and unwanted gestures that the movie could have done without. It should've been crisp to a max of 100 minutes. Unclear climax, unmatched or poorly synced background score, not showing the kills in detail.. and a few other flaws. The only good thing is the story which was lacking execution. All in all, you can watch it once..

Wow, it was one of the greatest movies I've seen in years. It gave me chills and maintained it all along for the two hours and thirty minutes - I don't even remember how the time passed! I didn't expect to see this low rating (7.X is a bit lower than I expected). However, it is not surprising to see there is also a negative review. If you are a movie-goer who needs to clarify every movie under a single genre and doesn't like to think but just like to see the clear start-clear ending, this is not the movie for you. But if you like to think and love to find/collect evidences to think ahead and derive the director's intentions and if you want to see a new occult movie, this is the movie for you. If you pay attention, things would lead you to the right direction and that is the beauty of the movie!! Another masterpiece from Director Na and I can tell you that this movie is the greatest of all his movies!!