NYAFF XXIII Review: In Han Dong-Seok’s THE SIN, A Hankering, Engrossing Horror Thriller
4 min. read
I don’t dabble a lot with horror movies, so it’s always a fascinating find when I blindly stumbleupon a title like The Sin. The movie is Han Dong-seok’s feature debut getting its North American Premiere at the New York Asian Film Festival this month, and I’m honestly happy I decided to dive into this one during my pre-fest coverage.
Si-young (Kim Yoon-hye) is an actress and a dancer faced with a traumatic past that afflicts her to this day. Raring to work and hired by a celebrated and ambitious filmmaker for an avant garde musical project to be shot at a remote location, it’s not long before Si-young and the crew realize the sudden danger they’re in. People are killed only to be mysterious resurrected, while survivors then find themselves trapped and either chased by the undead, or hunted by mysterious men with rifles.
What remains to be seen is three-fold: Why are people coming back from the dead? Who is responsible? And, who can Si-young trust? These are the questions Han lays thick for you in the first hour of his freshman horror thriller, which is exactly what you think it is during this portion of the film, until the script completely chucks you into a mindfield of twists and surprises.
Han sets the tone aptly in the first half of the film, creating as much mystique and unease around our main lead. Kim’s performances resonantes purposefully as a protagonist who earns your sympathy simply by projecting exactly what you would expect her to be from the start, and for the most part, she is. There’s a sense of an all-pervasive evil that keeps you reassured in this regard too, ranging from director Joon’s creepy, almost sociopathic aura, to some of the requisite montage moments comprised of grisly imagery intently designed to keep you a little on edge.
There’s also Si-young’s friendship with co-star Chae-yoon (Song Yi-jae), as well as a small group of dirty cops who emerge later on long after the shit hits the fan and Si-young and Joon take shelter away from the rampant zombies in the vicinity. Last but not least is the addition of an influential Chairwoman deemed to be the mastermind behind the bloody affair. More to the point, however, is the depth of the role the Chairwoman and everyone else involved plays in the deeper, more entrenched subplotting behind the dark, otherworldly allure and rising bodycount.
Couple this with the kind of sinewy revenge story arc that would pique Park Chan-wook’s interest, and top it all off with elements of the occult and the supernatural, and you have an intense and world-building endeavor that might have you wondering just what the heck is taking Park Hoon-jung so long for a third installment of The Witch. Granted, of course The Sin isn’t that kind of action-packed affair, but it does scratch the itch quite a bit as a scintillating story of retribution, one loaded plenty with violence, gore, and a resolve chilling enough to earn the applause it deserves by its cliffhanger-ish ending.
As for flaws, The Sin isn’t without its nitpicks, depending on who you are as a moviegoer. There was only one for me, and I’ll say in all earnestness that the one time I muttered “Don’t do the thing where you’re running away from something and you fall!,” a character did exactly that. I nearly laughed, but this scene didn’t take away from the movie at all. Han makes it worth your while with each scene in The Sin, peeling back the layers and revealing names, faces and motivations that turn The Sin from one kind of movie into something you don’t expect. As a result, Han directs an inventive, and determined horror thriller that is as refreshing, as it is engrossing and vastly entertaining.
The Sin is comprised of a lot of elements and moving pieces, and Han makes good work of the film’s runtime while laying out all various aspects and intricacies of the story for it all to make sense. There’s clearly a religious context the film proffers which more keen viewers are welcome to dissect for themselves, but as an escapist and gory horror flick, whatever your style or take is on the genre and its execution, the simple fact is that Han pulls out all the stops to make his mark with one hell of a crowdpleaser.
The Sin screens for the New York Asian Film Festival which runs from July 12 through 28.
Lead image: ©2024 DOOR E&M
Native New Yorker. Been writing for a long time now, and I enjoy what I do. Be nice to me!
