The nature surrounding the small Korean village of Gok-seong looks like paradise. But things are hellish in Gok-seong. Countless perfectly normal people are going insane and killing their families. Afterwards the killers sit on the floor in a state of catatonia covered in a terrible rash. Chubby policeman Ju.Gong usually arrives too late to the crime scene, because his wife and mother-in-law force him to eat a proper breakfast. His boss thinks he‘s „an idiot with pea-sized balls“. Director Na Hong-Jins film begins with several comic elements, but gets increasingly scary throughout the 2 and a half hour film. Ju-Gong‘s small daughter falls ill and starts to change. The police don‘t believe that poisonous wild mushrooms are the reason for people getting “possessed“. They suspect an old Japanese man who recently moved close by and was seen eating a dear with his bare hands while being naked with bloodshot eyes. A summoned shaman confirms that the Japanese man is a demon. But there‘s also a strange woman in a white dress. The world in which Na Hong-Jins story is set in is surrounded by demons. Some originate from their own souls, others affect the world from the outside. THE WAILING recalls a US lynch justice story at times, and other times it‘s more like THE EXORCIST or THE EVIL DEAD. It isn‘t so easy to find where the actual evil stems from. The Christian church plays a role as well as shamans, traditional medicine, the superstitious, xenophobia, andmost of all fear that feeds off of new fear. Na Hong-Jin carries on the tradition of brilliantly told Koran horror and mystery thrillers that we‘ve seen from Park Chan-Wook, Kim Jee-Woon, and Bong Joon-Ho.

Hannes Stein

Translation: Elinor Lewy