Korean action-adventure Woochi The Demon Slayer is so jam-packed with geekgasm-worthy awesomeness it almost defies description.
Although it plays around with time and space, for the most part the first act is a fast-paced magic-laden 16th Century wuxia epic of Woochi (Dong-won Kang), a cocky Taoist trainee wizard showing off and fighting shapechanging demon-goblins while trying to get his hands on a magical bronze dagger.
As all this is going on two Taoist masters - one of whom is Woochi's teacher - have been hunting for the Archgod's Pipe, a powerful artifact that the demons also desire.
Unfortunately, one of the masters, Hwadam (Yun-seok Kim), becomes corrupt - although the three bumbling Taoist godlings, tasked with recapturing the demons they allowed to escape in the first place, are oblivious to all this.
Hwadam frames Woochi for the murder of his master and the gods-stuck-in-human-form exile Woochi and his faithful companion Chorangyi (Hae-jin Yu) into a pair of paintings... where they remain for 500 years.
The action then cuts to modern day, in a major Korean city, when the immortal minor gods realise they have to free Woochi to help them capture a pair of goblin-demons and retrieve the Archgod's Pipe.
Without missing a beat the film metamorphoses into a superhero flick of the highest calibre, with the same incredible standard of CGI effects already established in the dazzling 'old world' segment seamlessly transposing to the modern day.
Unfortunately, Choi Dong-Hoon's direction (he also wrote the script) takes its foot off the accelerator for a bit in the latter half of the movie and while it certainly doesn't drag, there's a definite slow-down in proceedings almost up until the extended final conflict.
The range and creativity of the stunts and effects are mind-boggling, with people stepping in and out of paintings, exploding into clouds of smoke, running up the sides of buildings etc Although much of this has been seen in other wuxia movies, it has never been on quite this scale or with this rapidity and grace.
Woochi's particular take on magic alone should be fascinating to Western viewers - the Taoist wizards would certainly run rings around Merlin and Gandalf! Our first introduction to the roguish Woochi is a stunning display of magic and comedy unlike anything I've seen before - how often do we see Harry Potter passing himself off as a god to wind-up some muggles?
All the time, there is a lightness of touch and great humour to the proceedings, but this certainly isn't light-weight with some several, clever, visual plot devices that rival the stylings of Inception and Doctor Who.
If Woochi could have maintained the breakneck pacing of its first act throughout, it would have easily been in the running for recognition as one of the greatest action films of all time; even so it remains an incredible 115 minutes of cinema that puts many Hollywood blockbusters to shame.
No comments:
Post a Comment