Down with the Sickness
Genre-bending Korean film ‘The Wailing’ Returns for Limited Brattle Engagement
After being stricken with the unfortunate Boston market death sentence of a one-week stint at the AMC Boston Common, the Brattle Theatre has graciously resurrected Hong-jin Na’s The Wailing with a three-night return engagement from Friday July 8 through Sunday July 11. Its 9:30pm screening slot is positioned perfectly considering the film’s 156 minute duration, as it is an experience guaranteed to leave viewers stumbling out of the theater and into the witching hour feeling broken, beaten and disturbed. However, openly accepting the possibility of cerebral aftershock delivers the viewer with one of 2016’s very best hidden gems.
There are two experiences to consider here — the film itself, and the nightmares that come as a result. A pre-midnight movie, if you will, this relentless piece of cinema is constructed specifically for emotional and physical exhaustion. Audiences will be sent home to their beds, minds saturated with frightening content and scarring imagery, The Wailing continuing to prickle its way into the psyche long after the REM cycle begins.
The Wailing brilliantly blends genres like a smoothie laced with sinister shadows. It’s a police procedural and a fascinating mystery; a horror tale of devils, demons, possession and things that go bump in the night; a heartbreaking tragedy; a playful dark comedy; a calculated critique on xenophobia, family, religion and all things in between. The film finds absolute bliss in twisting conventions like licorice while never losing steadiness in this all-too-impressive balancing act. It glances down from its tightrope and laughs in the face of the orthodox.
The Wailing takes place in the little South Korean village of Goksung, populated by mountains and villagers who know one another well. A stranger (played by iconic actor Jun Kunimura) moves into the village, an old man of Japanese descent (casually demeaned as “The Jap” by most, a touch of cultural racism that adds elements of depth to an already loaded film). Soon after, a mysterious sickness spreads like wildfire. At first, it is believed to be the result of poisonous mushrooms, but police officer Jong-goo (the magnificent Kwak Do-wan) is led to suspect the stranger after a series of tips and personal horror stories.
The horrific procedural that ensues involves demons with glowing red eyes, ritual sacrifice, corpse photography, demonic possession and other oddities, yet to dive into specifics would be a crime to the un-expecting viewer. I will say that the unraveling plot of The Wailing leads to one of the most cinematically satisfying, thematically grueling and emotionally draining climaxes I’ve perhaps ever seen on screen. The flawless editing of these final moments creates haunting juxtapositions that continue to surprise and shock up until the movie’s final shots, while the score assaults like a percussive plague. Viscerally, the experience is raw, rough and remarkably real, creating indelible moment after moment in a tormenting tornado of sound, image and substance.
If the climax is the film’s corrupting crescendo, then all that precedes it is a premeditated crime. The Wailing digs its claws into the viewer with such unhurried discretion that you barely notice the infection happening until you’re past the point of no return. Once that precipice has been reached, there’s no turning back — the contagion has already arrived and I can’t recommend it more highly.
I’ve been diseased for weeks now, and I’m going back for seconds.
THE WAILING. FRI 6.8-SUN 6.11, 9:30pm. BRATTLE THEATRE, 40 BRATTLE STREET, HARVARD SQ., CAMBRIDGE.
Click here for tickets.
