Chaw (2009)

Transplanted to a remote village station, a police officer sent to investigate a series of strange animal attacks finds the area is part of the hunting grounds belonging to a vicious, man-eating boar and must team up with a group of eccentric locals to stop its bloodthirsty rampage.Frankly, this was quite an uneven creature feature. When this one works, a lot of its positives come from the exceptionally enjoyable creature feature setups. There is a lot of great action within here, from the first attacks in the outskirts of the village where the victims are killed off in savage attacks to the first real appearance of the creature when it strikes the fruit-field and drags a victim away. That this leads into the stellar hunting scene in the wilderness followed by the utterly phenomenal massacre at the festival to celebrate the capture which is one of the finest parts of the film being filled with some absolutely stellar action. The wild and frenzied finale, going from a series of encounters in the forest to the final confrontation in the factory is a great finish and offers even more fun to like about it. Coupled with the great gore from its vicious kills, some decent comedy and practical pig-effects, these hold it up over it's few minor flaws. Among it's most egregious faults is the fact that this one really goes for an uneven tone that's somewhat distracting overall here. The influx of comedy at times works nicely, yet there are numerous times where comes off as distracting more than anything, especially with gags like the repeatedly falling down a hill, stumbling across loose body parts in the woods or encountering ravening drunks in the middle of the village which are just part of the comedic touches featured in here. These are bland, boring gags that just eat up time here to make this one seem far longer than it really needs to be, as this tone clashes wildly with the more serious creature feature action presented here. Likewise, the film just in general is far too long and doesn't really need to be as lengthy as it is since these are just unneeded and don't add much to the film. Not only is the comedy aspect of the film way too engaged but there are way too many sideplots about the people of the village that have little reason for being included, ranging from the treatment of the mother he has to take care of to the rather eccentric characters living in the village that are shown engaging in rather full detail of their lives while living in the village and all the time spent on rehearsing for the video they film out in the wild are just pointless filler that drags away from it's best feature, the giant man-eating pig running around so it's far longer than it really needs to be. These here are what really hold this one down.Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence and Graphic Language.

I've never been more entertained randomly walking into a room before. I have to thank my friend's wife for randomly having it on and hooking me because of the insane amount of drunken people and shenanigans within the first 20 minutes of the movie. I mean this is by no means a well scripted or shot movie and I truly believe it just went for zany and succeeded completely. Between the utter lack of a scene or even time transition (except once after the grand daughter scene)this movie was shoddy, sporadic and confusing at times. Like I must have blinked when it was established that the main character had a pregnant wife cause she wasn't in the truck when they tried to ditch the mother. Many questions are left unanswered but the one major thing to take away from the movie, is if you ever see the camera pan out for a more horizontal shot while you're walking along...prepare to get sideswiped by something.I could continue with how the film work like randomly changes when they have scenes that look like crime drama shooting or the artsy film noir kind of shot, but that's taking away from the true beauty. My point of course being that regardless of budget, insanity or bad film work...this movie delivers. Don't go into this expecting a horror movie with a man- eating boar, go into just expecting to be entertained.This film gets a 10/10 from me because it's entertaining beyond words and we need more films like this. If you can find beauty in the "so bad that it's actually genius genre", then this is for you.

So the title of this movie is...? The Korean title is "Chawu", but the DVD movie I got from Amazon is titled "Chaw", but the one shown on the cover on IMDb is titled "Chawz".For a black comedy, then "Chaw" had surprisingly few laughs. There were some here and there, but they were far in between. But that is quite alright, because the movie is quite entertaining and doesn't necessarily rely on the comedy to carry it along.The story is about a police officer from Seoul who end up in a small rural village, where life is supposed to be quiet and uneventful. But the small idyllic village is terrorized by a marauding boar of gargantuan proportions."Chaw" is fun and entertaining, as it has some interesting characters and good dialogue, plus the effects in the movie were actually quite good. Don't expect Hollywood blockbuster effects - but they get the job done, and they do so nicely."Chaw" is not groundbreaking in any way, and it is unlikely to make a lasting impression, but still, it is well worth a watch and does provide good entertainment. A good Korean movie in the likes of "Razorback". Hardly worthy of a place alongside "The Host" (the Korean monster movie, not the Meyer's pseudo-teenage Sci-Fi), but still fun enough.

I don't understand why funny, dumb, and unattractive always come as a package in movies. Pretty people can be funny ... and dumb too. But anyway ... this little film is an entertaining ride. It's got funny, dumb, and unattractive people in it along with a giant pig that likes to dine on human beings. It's not a horror movie at all, except in concept. It's a comedy and it is quintessentially Korean. It's cast very well and everyone in it is earnest in their portrayal of absurdities. The cops are macho bumbling idiots, and people, and the pig, fall down a lot. As with most every South Korean film the production values are great but don't go in expecting a lot of good monsterness. The film is more about the people and the community than it is about the boar. The creature alternates between a couple guys in a furry jumpsuit and medium grade CGI but it gets the job done and doesn't look cheap. Chaw doesn't take itself seriously and if you don't, you will enjoy it. It's funny and entertaining.