Haunters (2010)

The description of this movie alone convinced me to watch it, and the cover said it was better than any superhero film, and I'd say they weren't far off.It reflects a very Korean style; kind of unsure about what genre it wants to be, switching between drama and comedy, but having just enough character development to have you care about the important characters but not explaining anything you don't need to know, held up by great actors.There's some very memorable scenes in this film, and some very memorable performances, along side a great story, similar in some ways to American films like Unbreakable and Chronicle. The score to the film was also good, and quite fitting, while not necessarily memorable.Overall I give the movie 8/10 and recommend it to anyone wanting to see a semi-dramatic movie with many entertaining, exciting, superheroesque themes.

HAUNTERS is an original take on the superhero movie. No capes, daft aerials, or superman latex costumes (why do superheroes always look and sound a bit gay?) Instead we have two young kids from the streets of South Korea. Both have a limp and both have the strange power to control other people's minds on sight. Cho-in is the bad guy, polishing his powers to live a comfortable lifestyle. Kyu-nam is the good guy, championing honesty and friendship in the face of Cho-in's merciless killing and avarice. From this simple idea, writer-director Min-suk Kim builds an intelligent, fast-paced thriller that keeps the audience wondering where it will go next. Although I wasn't entirely won over, I enjoyed it much more than the high budget but rather predicable niche into which Marvel comic super-heroes have fallen. With its fine South Korean pedigree, Haunters makes sure than people suffer realistically when they die and that blood never looks like strawberry jam.

Cho-In (Gang Dong-won) has a remarkable ability: he can control the actions of anybody that he can see, up to and including large crowds. He has no friends, or family for that matter – in fact, as a child he forced his father to kill himself and almost killed his mother too – but he doesn't need people, except to have them do his bidding such as giving him all the money at a place of business. He has no fear, because nobody ever remembers him or what happened when he had control over them. Kyu-nam (Ko Soo), on the other hand, has supernatural powers of healing, which he needs as he seems to get into physical jeopardy fairly often. He and his two friends Bubba and Al, from Ghana and Turkey respectively, live life joyously although they are poor and work in a junkyard. After an accident, Kyu-nam is fired, but finds himself a new job in a family-run pawn shop, a place he very much likes. That is, until Cho-In comes along to take money from the old man who runs the place; and Cho-In is himself in for a shock when he discovers Kyu-nam, who turns out to be the one person Cho-In cannot control with his mind. As these two characters interact, the deadly body count starts rising, and it seems there's no way to stop more carnage, for Cho-In is determined to erase Kyu-nam from existence, seeing him as a threat, and Kyu-nam is damn near indestructible....This is one of those wonderful Korean movies that has a bit of everything: it's really funny, really sad, full of horrific deaths and full of loving exchanges. Oh, and it tells a really good anti-superhero tale, too. One thing I've rarely if ever seen in Korean films is non-Korean (or non-Asian) actors, so it was a special treat to see a Black man from Ghana and a Caucasian from Turkey – unfortunately, I couldn't discover the actors' names, but they were both excellent sidekicks. But the show belongs to Ko Soo and Gang Dong-won, as two men with inexplicable abilities doomed to be enemies to the death; recommended.

The plot of the film has a young man with the power to manipulate people as if they were puppets with his eyes coming into conflict with another young man with miraculous healing properties that some how makes him immune from control. The conflict starts when an attempt by the villain to get money from the pawn shop where our hero works goes wrong. The remaining 90 minutes of screen time is a chase that really doesn't make a heck of a lot of sense.With plot holes you could drop a planet through, illogical moves that defy rational thought and lack of excitement that is amazing, this film is a well made stinker.Yes it looks good...Yes it has a few sequences that are great (The 1991 opening for example)......but there is no real reason for the conflict. Worse we have a hero who's almost every move causes some one to die or get hurt.I can't think of a reason for any of it to happen...especially as it goes down here.I like the look, I like the ideas, I hate the script.I'm really torn about whether to rip this film apart or not- hence the lack of plot details... but I don't have the time to truly rip this films logic and get to bed at a reasonable hour.Besides I don't think you'll be foolish like me and buy a 30 buck import of the film- odds are you'll pay say 10 bucks and see it in a theater and maybe walk out... I stupidly stayed to the bitter end.