na hong-jin - Film Combat Syndicate

na hong-jin

Na Hong-Jin’s THE YELLOW SEA Is A Heart-Breaking, Soul-Searching Post-Mortem In Four Acts

To date, Na Hong-Jin has only ever helmed three films – his most recent being 2016 mystery thriller, The Wailing. Six years earlier, Na sat in for his second film after 2008’s The Chaser with The Yellow Sea, reuniting with actor Ha Jung-Woo two years later. Ha happens to be one of my favorite actors as of 2014 when I first saw him in Yoon Jong-Bin’s Kundo. The Yellow Sea retroactively reaffirms this in one of the rawest performances you’ll see amidst an epic crime drama that almost never lets up in its intensity or bleakness. At two hours and change, there is a lot to unpack, but the gist of the story centers on Gu-nam, a Joseonjok migrant who reluctantly accepts an offer from a local crimeboss to travel to Korea to perform a hit-for-hire. Calamity ensues when he’s framed for the murder, ensuing a twist of events that […]

Cam’s Eye Review: THE WAILING (2016) – Whom Do You Trust?

If you go fishing, do you know what you’ll catch?” This is the line that jumps out at me where you really don’t quite know what is going to happen next, a feeling which continues to a chilling, harrowing climax in The Wailing. A brutal multiple homicide leads an oafish local cop (Kwak Do-won) on the track of something sinister after a new Japanese resident (Kunimura Jun) seemingly affects the community of a small South Korean village, Gokseong, with an unusual outbreak of a skin condition that ultimately drives villagers insane and on a killing spree. After certain “mushrooms” are blamed by the media and police, the cop’s young daughter (Kim Hwan-hee) falls ill while he investigates to solve the murders and others around him. Fresh out of competition from Cannes, The Wailing is written and directed by Na Hong-jin, a favorite of the festival. The supernatural thriller gives us the […]