"The Cursed: Dead Man's Prey"-- Korean horror movie review, part two

 

 Release Date: July 28, 2019   Length: 105 minutes    Director: Kim Yong-Wan

Main Cast: This is a spinoff from the 2020 Korean TV series which I haven't viewed. But this is a stand alone story and watching the drama wasn't needed but there were a few details that carried over from the series, there's supposed to be a season two soon.

Uhm Ji-Won as Im Jin-Hee.... Star of this film who is above and is a semi disgraced journalist, the reasons were mainly unknown and it was part of the TV drama. Jin-Hee was fired from her previous reporter's position and has now opened her own company called Urban Detective. She's the co-CEO of the company that's a news channel which mainly tracks mysterious cases. Jin-Hee has recently written a book titled "Hatred and Sorcery" which talked about her previous scandal, she's married to the next man.

Jung Moon-Sung as Sung-Joon.... The above's husband and until the end they didn't appear to be that close. He's the lead detective on the Seoul Metro Investigation Unit, Song-Joon walks with a limp and often uses a cane and the reason was probably discussed in the TV series. 

Jung Ji-So as So-Jin.... Young woman who is a female sorceress! She knows Jin-Hee well but disappeared over a year ago as So-Jin had been cursed, she's traveled to Japan and China to find a cure which was fruitless. However So-Jin isn't too badly infected as she can lead a normal life and did come to the rescue at the end of this film.

Lee Seol as Jessy.... New intern at the Urban Detective news channel, she'll be with the video unit but Jessy isn't what she appears to be.... someone risen from the dead?!

Kim In-Kwon as Kim Pil-Seong.... The co-CEO of Urban Detective who himself had been a detective for twenty years and still knows most currently on the force.

Oh Yoon-Ah as Byun Mi-Young.... Daughter of the below man who is the main director at Seungil Pharm. Mi-Young is the heir to her father's position and came so close to getting it in this movie. Not a lot of screen time until the end but it was an important role and she is quite the SNOB!

Jeon Gook-Hwan as Byun Seung-Ii.... Father of the above who founded the company with the next two men. Seungil Pharm is the whole key to the story as they've done some very shady things which led to many deaths.

Kwon Hae-Hyo as Lee Sang-In.... Director at Seungil Pharm and was second on the list to die of a curse but ended his life before that.

Jung Jae-Sung as Kim Min-Seop.... The third director at the company who was the first to die!

Park Chan-Woo as Park Woo-Chan.... As you notice his character's name is a play on his real one. He works at Urban Detective and is Jin-Hee's main assistant.

Nam Yeon-Woo as Yoo Jung-Hoon.... Detective on Sung-Joon's investigative team.

Go Gyu-Pil as Tak Jeong-Hoon.... College professor who is knowledgeable in the occults, especially ones from Indonesia where this curse originated.

 Few other characters but the above list is long enough! There's two other words I may use or aree in some of the screenshots. The first is Jaechul which appears to be the Korean word for those who have risen from the grave and at times can talk. The other is Dukun which is the Indonesian word for a Shaman, in this case it's for a medium who can bring certain dead bodies back to life.

 Different trailer for the movie

 

 

 This should be a shorter post than part one(wasn't) as the second half of the film was much more action packed with less dialogue. Will give my grade now and of the seven Korean movies I've reviewed in the last five months all have been decent watches though won't say any have been classics. Think all have had at least an eight rating and will give this one an 8.6/10, the highest out of the seven films? It wasn't a sluggish beginning, it was just the fact so many things were thrown at us which did need to be remembered but things settled down after that and I truly enjoyed this movie. The Zombie like creatures were some of the best I've seen along plus the closing scene to the first part gets an A+ from me. It's more of a suspense/action movie versus a horror one and one other positive is that this film moved right along, never caught myself looking at the time hoping it would be over! So let's get to part two of the review and thanks if you've read both of them.

 Can't top that car chase scene that ended off the prior post but the rest of the film was darn good too! So this is where we stand now, the Jaechaui army has killed Kim who was a director at Seungil Pharm, two more directors are on the hit list. There was a big fallout from that car chase scene and that's in the top screenshot above. When a Jaechaui bites a human they become affected with an odd PSP toxin, all those bodies in the hospital are the police who tangled and lost to the Jaechauis. The main person bitten who has his own room is the leader of the investigative team, Sung-Joon who is also Jin-Hee's husband. He's out for the count and we won't learn his outcome until the end. Jin-Hee along with her co-CEO Seung-Pil, her assistant Woo-Chan, the professor Tak and a detective named Yoon who worked with Sung-Joon held a pow-wow to figure out what their next steps would be and if a Jaechaui could be killed. Jin-Hee did notice that these creatures have a unique mark on their right wrist, it also seems that's where they're vulnerable. According to Tak that mark is how a Dukun, an Indonesian sorcerer, can control a Jaechaui and by chopping off their wrist it may kill the monster!

 The problem is how to get close enough to a Jaechaui as they're quite powerful and agile. But Tak added if you can get to the Dukun and kill him that will also eliminate the creatures, is this 'master' still in Indonesia? Probably not according to Tak again, a Dukun needs the soil of where a victim was buried to resurrect them so that Shaman must be in Korea and odds are a relative of one of the ninety who died in the horrific experiments run by Seungil Pharm. Speaking of them next on the list to be killed by a Jaechaui is the director Lee, he's in the second and fifth screenshots above. In the second pic he's with the main president of Seungil Pharm Byun who is scheduled to be killed two days after Lee! Like his daughter/heir Min-Young this older man Byun is quite full of himself and very arrogant, he told Lee not to worry about a thing which of course were empty words. Lee was in such a state of panic that he went to Jin-Hee and her mates for help, she interviewed him which is where she and us viewers learned much about the atrocities committed by Seungil Pharm. Lee even apologized but will it work as this unknown Dukun wants a sincere apology from Byun and that may not be happening. During this interview it was learned that the experiments took place at the company's old HQ, that's where Jin-Hee headed and that building is the bottom screenshot above.

 You can see above what the outcome with Lee was, about two hours before he was to be killed by the Jaechaui monsters he took his own life. He seemed like a decent man who was sorry for what took place, unlike Byun who still refuses to apologize for what his company did. Jin-Hee went to the old Seungil Pharm building to hopefully find out some answers on who is controlling the Jaechauis, she did find much out which almost ended her life. With her on that journey was the above man Yoon who is her husband's assistant on the investigative team. Yoon is a solid detective and is dependable, he does have a fair amount of screen time though his character was only so-so important. At this abandoned building the pair found drawings on some walls that look just like the marks that a Jaechaui has on their right wrists. So they may have hit pay dirt as this could be the place where the Dukun has been controlling his monsters, is he or them still around? That's a question that did have an answer, one that Jin-Hee and Yoon didn't want to hear!!!! They were soon rushed by a swarm of the Jaechauis but only a few which is still too many.

 Yoon did have a pistol which he used but they had no effect on the creatures, so by now we know you can only kill a Jaechaui by cutting off it's right wrist or by killing it's Master. One of the Jaechauis attacked Jin-Hee and she of course was no match for it, her certain death could occur within seconds. But there was a savior, an unexpected one, and this was a very key moment in the movie. Popping out of nowhere was the young woman in the second, third and fifth screenshots, her name is So-Jin and she made her first appearance at about the seventy minute mark. She has some special powers and was able to defeat the Jaechaui who was about to take Jin-Hee's life. So-Jin also took down the monster that Yoon was grappling with along with two others on their escape. Jin-Hee knows So-Jin quite well and that's carried over from the TV series, it appears So-Jin saved her life in that too. And in that saving incident So-Jin had been infected by a Spirit but so far she can still lead a normal life. So-Jin went to Japan and then China to exorcise the spirit, it's worked to an extent but she's still cursed and what will happen if she can't lift it? So-Jin is also a sorceress, she doesn't have superhero powers but is quite strong and has some 'mind powers'. Such as being able to read a person's mind or to be aware of impending doom for someone she cares for, it's how she learned of Jin-Hee's predicament.

 We're getting there, just two more segments to go which of course were action packed with some horror thrown in! After the death of Kim at the hands of the Jaechaui monsters and the suicide of Lee the main Seungil Pharm director Byun knows he has to do something to save his own skin, he denied there were revengeful creatures but has changed his mind. Byun contacted Jin-Hee and has told her he'll make the public apology that Park had requested, that was from the first post. Park had demanded the apology be truly sincere, he trusted Jin-Hee enough where he said it will be her decision if its sincere enough. This mini event was being taped by her Urban Detective channel, Byun gave a very short speech where he just apologized for any cruel things his Seungil Pharm company may have done. He added in though that everything was done for the advancement of vaccines and sadly there will always be victims. That speech got a thumbs down by Jin-Hee who told Byun the apology should be going out to the dead victims(!) and their relatives. Byun then gave another short apology speech and while better than the first one really wasn't all that sincere, during this time his daughter/heir was fuming off stage. 

 In the middle screenshot above saying 'Does his apology sound sincere?' is the new video intern Jessy. We haven't seen all that much of her up until now but enough where we thought she would play a key role in this movie. During this time the co-CEO of Urban Detective Pil-Seung was checking the records of those Indonesia immigrants who were killed by the Seungil Pharm experiments. To his surprise on the list was Jessy, she's returned to the living as a Jaechaui! It was too late for Pil-Seung to notify his partner Jin-Hee, shortly after Jessy uttered the above line she went completely berzerk and tried to attack Byun. But for once a Jaechaui was held at bay, Byun and his daughter were able to escape to the upper floors of the Seungil Pharm building. The police are now there in full force but can even they prevent his upcoming death? The answer is NO but Byun didn't die as we thought he would. A Jaechaui is a very strong creature and Jessy was able to defeat all of Byun's protectors and trap him in his office. Just when it appeared she would deliver the 'death blow' she transformed into a piece of rock like the other Jaechauis have done just before they die. However for now Jessy's body didn't crumble into a pile of pebbles and dirt, so then how did Byun die and why did Jessy turn into a rock?

 Finally the final segment and outside of Byun's office listening to the action was Min-Young, she wouldn't mind seeing her father killed as it would mean she's the new CEO of Seungil Pharm! But after hearing nothing Min-Young entered the office to see her father Byun still alive and Jessy as a stone statue. But Min-Young was prepared and could use Jessy as her alibi saying she killed her father, Min-Young quickly poured some sort of chemical on her father's face who then of course perished, the perfect murder? No it wasn't as unknown to Min-Young the whole incident had been filmed by Jin-Hee and there was no getting out of that for Min-Young who was soon led away by the police. As Pil-Seong says above to Jin-Hee justice is served again but the question remaining is why did Jessy turn into a stone statue? She didn't get a whole lot of screen time but once again So-Jin was there to save the day. She returned to the old Suengil Pharm HQ where she presumed the Dukun, an Indonesian shaman, was hiding out and she was correct, that's him in the middle two screenshots.

 Don't know what her exact power is but when So-Jin can touch the face of a Jaechaui or any other kind of spirit she can render them powerless and can even kill that evil spirit. Now that the three directors of Seungil Pharm are now dead the Dukun has got his revenge, only to an extent as it wasn't him or his creatures who killed two of the directors. But now that his mission was semi accomplished the Dukun didn't try to defend himself from So-Jin, she touched this man's face and in a matter of seconds he was dead.... again? When a Dukun is killed all of the curses that were put on a living human or Jaechaui are cleared from their bodies, it's the reason why Jessy turned into a stone statue. So a happy ending took place as Jin-Hee's husband Sung-Joon arose from his coma and was free of any curse. So that brings us to the end of the movie and I may not have done this film enough justice as I really enjoyed it and will view it again. So would recommend this to anyone who likes a lot of action with much horror thrown in. Now I have to figure out whether to watch the TV drama that aired a year earlier, plenty of screenshots as usual and they really do help you follow the story a bit better.