I saw a movie in the early hours of Monday morning called "The Cry",
I am very disappointed.
The director of the movie is called Luo Hongzhen, maybe you don’t know him, but you just have to try to watch the two films before the director-"The Chaser" and "The Yellow Sea", then you will definitely look at Luo Hongzhen like me. One of the most noteworthy directors in Korea.
It is precisely because of the accumulation of the previous two films that Luo Hongzhen’s new work has been highly anticipated and paid attention to after many years. However, it is also because of the intrusion of the previous two films that the audience has watched "The Cry". , Controversy abounds, because "Cry" is completely different from the previous two films. You thought it was still a hearty, suspenseful action drama, but you didn't expect it to be a horror movie with a lot of talk.
Please allow me to briefly introduce the plot of the movie first (I did not follow the chronological order of the movie):
The cause of the story is a murder. In a rural town in South Korea, a man slaughtered his wife. The assault was very cruel. There were as many as 20 wounds and blood was flowing into rivers.
The assailant man sat in front of the door exhausted, covered with disgusting herpes, his white eyes rolled up unconsciously, and he was totally unconscious.
The protagonist Zhong Jiu is the policeman in the town. He is in charge of this case. He is more timid and fearful. In the heavy rain at night, when a mad woman appears in front of the door, he will hide under the table and chairs in fright, and the crazy killer will pounce on him. At times, he would collapse on the ground, unable to sit up for a long time. When investigating the scene for the first time, Zhong Jiu found that there were bunches of withered snapdragons hanging in front of the door, resembling a pile of hanging skulls.
This detail seems to imply that the whole case is not a simple murder, but is related to mysterious power.
In fact, this is also a very important prop in the film.
It was precisely because of the strange incident that Zhong Jiu and his colleagues could hardly find a breakthrough when investigating the case. At the same time, a second murder occurred in the village. The deceased died in the same way and the perpetrators had similar characteristics.
Some rumors pointed the finger at an outsider-an old Japanese man fishing.
Some people say that they have seen a Japanese old man molest the assailant woman in the second case by the river. Some people say that since the old man came to the village, various strange incidents have occurred.
The first shot of the whole movie is the old man fishing, and fishing is also a very important clue.
Later, Zhong Jiu and his colleagues came to investigate the old man's house in Japan. The colleague found that the old man's home was full of photos of the scene of several murders (these photos are also a very important clue), and found a shoe lost by his daughter.
Zhong Jiu saw various props in another room decorated like a secret altar, such as sheep's heads and stone statues, full of mysterious religious colors.
The colleague was so scared that he was talking about the murderer along the way.
At the same time, Zhong Jiu's daughter began to change.
The personality gradually became irritable, herpes developed on her body, her appetite greatly increased, and she also ate fish that she had never eaten before. He yelled at Zhong Jiu, and the workbook was full of strange pictures, and even killed with scissors. To the neighbor’s grandma.
During the investigation, Zhong Jiu also encountered a mysterious woman. This is another most important character in the film. When she appeared on the scene, the woman was crazy, picking up the stones on the side of the road and constantly throwing them at Zhong Jiu. , It's all around the feet.
The mysterious woman looked nervous, and told Zhong Jiu that everything was caused by the old Japanese man, and he was a ghost.
From this time on, the whole film has become more and more horrible, and the suspenseful painting style that had been given before has disappeared. Because we have begun to believe that the behind-the-scenes man is related to the Japanese, and some anomalies suggest some kind of spiritual power.
In the movie, there are many scenes of the old Japanese man becoming a man-eating demon. He is naked, with only a six-foot bag wrapped around his lower body, his eyes glowing red, fierce and terrifying. (Of course, the next shot is Zhong Jiu waking up from his sleep, which makes people mistakenly think it's just a dream.)
Because his daughter had the same characteristics as the murderers in the previous homicides, and because of the influence of various information, Zhong Jiu began to believe in some unnatural spiritual power. In order to save his daughter, Zhong Jiu became brave, took a Christian who can speak Japanese, once again went to the old man's house in Japan, and smashed the old man's house into a mess, letting the old man leave here with harsh words.
The mother-in-law also invited the famous local wizard, Huang Zhengmin, to play Nikko. When the movie focused on the character of Nikko, he was given a shot of changing his clothes. We can clearly see that Nikko wears the same six-foot-length clothes as the old Japanese man. (Daylight is also an important person in the film, and this shot is also very suggestive.)
When Nikko came, he believed that everything was done by the Japanese. He was a ghost, a ghost with profound spiritual power he had never seen before, and he needed to do a ritual to destroy him.
Then there was a cross-editing drama, and it was also the time when the gods and demons were the strongest in the whole film. Nikko practiced exorcism for Zhong Jiu's daughter, and the old Japanese man also practiced on the other side.
Judging from the screen, the audience got the message: Nikko and the Japanese old man were fighting in the air. The Japanese old man was invincible in mana and he vomited blood frequently.
But because his daughter was very painful throughout the ceremony, Zhong Jiu called a halt. Afterwards, Zhong Jiu asked the priest, whether the old Japanese man was a ghost or not, the priest said that he could do nothing.
Zhong Jiu called on a bunch of buddies to pursue the victory. Regardless of whether the old Japanese man was a ghost or not, he was ready to give him a fatal blow. But on the way back, the Japanese fell off the cliff and was hit by their car. Zhong Jiu threw his body down the cliff.
However, the murder case continued. Zhong Jiu's police colleague killed his family, just like the previous tragedy.
The improving daughter of Zhong Jiu also began to become abnormal again. The Japanese did not die, and things were not that simple. Then the story comes to a climax. The mysterious woman who had been observing the murder and the Japanese in the dark has also officially appeared.
And the person she targeted turned out to be Nikko. (They have never been in direct contact before)
Nikko just glanced at her unintentionally, and he vomited, and he was so frightened.
Nikko was riding in the car, preparing to escape, but there were countless flying crows to stop him along the way, so he had to return. He called Zhong Jiu and asked Zhong Jiu to go home immediately.
He said: He had made a mistake before. The old Japanese man is actually the same mage as himself, who is to save the people in the village. The mysterious woman is behind the scenes, and she is the ghost.
The ultimate problem before Zhong Jiu is who to trust. Nikko asked him to go home to see his daughter, but the mysterious woman asked him to wait a little longer. She said that Nikko and the Japanese old man are in the same group, and the Japanese old man is the ghost, and solemnly told Zhong Jiu that I was already trapped in your house. As long as you wait until the cock crows three times and then go back, there will be no problem.
However, Zhong Jiu still failed to believe the woman, because the clothes she was wearing and the hairpins not far away came from the previous victim and his daughter.
So Zhong Jiu finally stepped into the house before the cock crowed three times.
The snapdragon hanging at the door of the house instantly withered and turned into a skull.
And Zhong Jiu, without any accident, became a victim of the massacre.
In the next scene of the movie, Nikko drove to Zhong Jiu's house and took a tragic photo of Zhong Jiu's family with a camera exactly like the old Japanese man. When I drove away, a wooden box fell to the ground, and various live photos inside were scattered all over the floor.
This is a movie with a lot of content and a huge expression system. It incorporates a lot of religious things, including lines and subtitles cards that repeatedly appear in the "Bible" about Jesus, the movie about the devil, the wizard, etc. The portrayal also draws on various religious legends to varying degrees, but it is not limited to legends or many previous settings.
When facing the question of Christians, the old Japanese man quoted Jesus' words: There is no soul and no flesh, you see I have it, I have bones and flesh.
However, under the lens of the movie, the old Japanese man is a real demon in our eyes. Movies are just like this self-contradictory, always showing a kind of logical self-obstruction. When the director Luo Hongzhen tells the whole story, he always deliberately misleads the audience with lens language or props, allowing the audience to diverge in more complicated directions, so that you can completely make up for the whole story. Come in the opposite direction.
The biggest reason why I don't like this film comes from this. In order to tell a complicated story, the director uses many unkind montages to confuse the audience, which makes it uncomfortable to watch. But the whole film still presents a state that cannot be justified. The motivation of the characters, their related settings, and the logic of many events are not clear.
There is a passage in the movie that can interpret the motivational theory of "ghost", or perhaps it can also interpret the illogical nature of the movie. Zhong Jiu asked Nikko: Why is it my daughter? Why did the wild ghost have to torture her? Nikko uses fishing as an analogy, saying that "ghost" is just a bait, and it happens that your daughter got hooked.
And the whole movie is just like this. That's how the director made it. If you just say it, that's the whole logic. We can’t ask the motivation, we can’t ask the reason, the story is like this:
A demon with bones and flesh, who is not explained by Christianity and Buddhism, came to the village from elsewhere. He was just like a fisherman who "wishes the bait" to confuse innocent people one after another. Innocent people are here. Under his magical power, he became irritable and irritable, and his body was covered with herpes. Finally, he killed the people around him to release the demons, and he died suddenly because of the herpes.
From the fact that the Japanese and Nikko use the same camera and wear the same kind of underwear, it is believed that they are accomplices. We don’t ask about the motive or the reason , but we can guess that when an innocent person was hooked, Nikko was a local mage. Please go to exorcism, it is an exorcism in name, but it is a practice to wake up the demons.
To be precise, it was the two people who cooperated inside and outside, which caused a tragedy. We don't ask about the motive or the reason . They both like to take some photos of their "masterpieces" before and after committing the crime.
Judging from the occurrence of snapdragons in several massacres, it can be concluded that every mysterious woman has been rescued. Regardless of the motive or the cause , the mysterious woman can make the sun vomit blood with just one look, but she is They were not able to save the innocent people even once. They fell into the puzzle set up by Nikko and the Japanese each time, were bewitched and killed.
So this may be a tragic story that will continue to loop indefinitely. People may be like Zhong Jiu, ultimately choosing to believe in the sun instead of a mysterious woman, and indulge in the destruction of life.
But if we really ask about motives, why? You will find that this film is full of loopholes and questions that cannot be freely stated. But in the process of watching the movie, apart from the deceptive motives, my mind was still full of questions.
Why is the Japanese old man incarnate as a devil so terrifying but chased by Zhong Jiu and his party all over the mountain? Is there any time rule for his incarnation of the devil? What is the logic of the setting? Why doesn't the sun vomit so much blood at all? Why did he meet the flying crow when he drove out of the city? Who is preventing him from escaping? Is it a mysterious woman? Why did she put an opponent back when she knew that Nikko had acted and she was not confident about breaking the game? Why did the mysterious woman wear the clothes of the victim who caused Zhong Jiu's suspicion when she finally went to keep Zhong Jiu from going home? Isn't this deliberately misleading? Why is the mysterious woman so powerful that she has no way to deal with the evil deeds of the old man and Nikko? Why did she pretend to be a silly girl throwing stones at Zhong Jiu on the side of the road? Why does Zhong Jiu have a life case when he goes home? Wouldn't her daughter kill anyone if she didn't go home? What exactly are the traps mysteriously set for "ghosts"? Why did Zhong Jiu return not come home as the criterion for the success of the bureau? ...
And these inexplicable points are just a scrap of the various problems that have arisen when watching this "Cry". Although we should not be so picky with the eyes of the suspense film, his logic is so confused that there are so many points. Human gesticulation.
Of course, if we don’t ask the motivation or the reason, "Cry" is still an excellent horror film. Director Luo Hongzhen’s atmosphere and emotional control are always just right. The whole movie shows the oriental magic. The breath is also very attractive. The series of bloody scenes such as cannibalism, hacking and slashing in the movie are as usual in Luo Hongzhen, evil, dark and tyrannical.
In fact, if you really have the director’s magic, regardless of motives and logic, you will still think that this film is awesome, and you will even construct a brand new idea of strange power and chaos that you recognize from the many details of the film. The world view comes.
However, I am a fanboy who loves to ask about motives and reasons.
you still can:
If Jiaju is still alive
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