Up next at the NYAFF is the supernatural / sci-fi-ish Korean thriller, Haunters, which marks the directorial debut of Kim Min-Suk, the ingenious screenwriter behind the smash hit The Good, the Bad, the Weird.
The movie opens up in 1991 with a shot of a blindfolded little boy with a prosthetic leg clinging to his mother’s wrist while wandering the streets of Seoul. When his abusive father comes home and starts beating his father, the boy takes his blindfold off and makes his father snap his own neck. That is when we find out this boy has the ability to use the Jedi Mind Trick on other people. After the incident, the mother attempts to kill her son, he evades her and disappears forever.
Fast forward to 2010 and we now meet our main character Kyu-nam (Koo So) who, after an accident, loses his job at a junk yard and is now seeking employment at a pawn shop. After being hired, the boss warns him of something odd happening in the shop and on the first day Kyu-nam experiences it. An unknown man (Gang Dong-Won) walks into the shop and everything freezes except Kyu-nam, who eventually breaks free of the man’s telepathic grip and tries to stop him (we later find out that he has a few other ‘gifts’ as well). The rest of the movie is about our hero trying to stop this menace, but the problem is that this guy can control anyone and everyone who is in his eyesight. Imagine an entire city against you, makes stopping this physically challenged guy a little tougher to beat. Kyu-nam teams up with his comical friends, Bubba (Black guy form Ghana) and Al (white Turkish guy), in an attempt to take down this mystery man who seems to have a vendetta against the one guy he can’t control.
At this point in time I am emotionally torn over this film. When I had finished the movie I loved it because it was this down to earth sci-fi flick that managed to stay grounded while maintaining a sense of chaos amongst the order of everyday society. After a few days of thinking about the film, I realized how many flaws there were, how repetitive it actually was, and how average the movie actually is. This really bothers me because I wanted to maintain all my positive reactions but it wouldn’t be right to hide my thoughts on it now.
The mystery man or, as I like to call him, the one legged male version of Phoenix from X-Men, has one major flaw that leads to all the craziness on screen. Why is it, that after two troubling 
instances as a child, does he have such a hatred for everyone else in the world. It doesn’t make sense, especially if he’s never tried to form a relationship with anyone ever since the incident from his childhood. Instead, he manipulates and kills those who are around him and uses them like toys because he knows nobody can stop him. Once he learns that someone can resist his power he decides to hate him too. Why? Because he is no longer unique? It doesn’t make any sense; his hatred has no real logic to it.
As for what I liked, I thought the movie subtle yet powerful. It was suspenseful at all the right moments, hitting its mark every time while making sure nothing got too crazy or unbelievable. The action sequences were really cool and were never over the top, but they did get repetitive. The stars were playing average people and, as such, they fought like average people. There was no crazy choreography, just choking and punching, how most normal people would fight which made it seem more realistic. I give a lot of props to the two leads for their solid performances and making this film their own. Additionally, I enjoyed some of the symbolic foreshadowing early on in the film. Min-Suk crafts his film so that you have a chance to figure out where the story will go while making sure you don’t know how to get there. He makes sure to keep it detailed enough so that you don’t have to worry about continuity issues or significant plot holes.
Haunters, at face value, is a pretty cool Korean thriller that’s dark, engaging, and well grounded. Once you reflect back on the film, it becomes a bit more average and its flaws are exposed, but I think you’ll still find it enjoyable nonetheless. Despite one key scene losing its credibility and then the horrendous ending—the last three minutes—I still found myself lost in the simplicity and “realistic” nature of it. Kim Min-Suk’s follow-up to The Good, the Bad, the Weird may pale in comparison, but give this film a chance; it’s a decent flick to pass the time on a Saturday or Sunday night.
Rating: A cool, grounded and clearly imperfect superhero thriller that’s good at first but then recedes into mediocrity over time (6/10)
Recent Comments