The Childe (Movie Review)
hi omg. so i just recently watched the latest korean film from dir. park hoon jung, the creator of the witch film series, which is called "the childe". i am not a movie expert or anything so take my advice with a grain of salt.
let's talk about the cons first.
the pacing of the first 30 minutes of the movie, wherein the characters are slowly being introduced. it was a bit slow and unorganized. there were some scenes in the beginning that can be considered as filler scenes, which adds to the slowness of the pacing of the film, and the character of go ara was not really fleshed out well, which is a missed opportunity.
now the pros.
okay, the plot is simple with a few plot twists and there, pretty much john wick vibes except it's asian LMAO because of the main conflict of the show. i was a bit confused in one of the revelations of the show but caught up quickly anyway.
next is the comedy. actually, this was one of my fears to this film. comedy being used in action films are usually forced, and a bit cringeworthy, but SURPRISINGLY, seonho did it naturally. the comedic timing was so smooth and i genuinely laughed. it's like the icebreaker for the seriousness of the film. no forced jokes. there could be some lines that are cheesy for other people, but it's still tolerable.
and i think the what excelled the most in the film is the line delivery of each character, and how they contributed to the overall ambiance of the film. Each of the major characters had contributed enough in their delivery of their dialogues. However, i would like to emphasize two actors: kang tae ju and kim seonho.
kang tae-ju really did an amazing job for his character. the desperation and the fear of the character were obviously portrayed accurately by him, and he had such a good chemistry with seonho. his english accent is topnotch ofc. he has the potential to become the next thing.
and now of course, kim seonho. the kim seonho. oh my god. never have i ever thought, that he would also be fitting in the action genre. throughout the film, i tried to observe if there are resemblance of any past characters that he did e.g. han ji pyeong from start-up and hong du sik from hometown cha-cha-cha, and guess what? there was no resemblance AT ALL. i mean why am i surprised he studied theater acting for 10 fucking years before debuting in a small screen. of course, micro-expressions were obviously visible throughout the film i mean come on IT'S GIVEN already. next is his American English accent. oh. my. god. i truly lost it when he delivered his english lines in the movie. he literally has the potential to become really proficient in english. god he was so hot. the thought that he probably only took english classes for a short period of time... oh my god. again, the way he delivered his comedic lines throughout the film was just *chef's kiss, no more further explanation on that. of course, that popular filipino line that he said on the film, i mean, as a filo, it wasn't that bad actually, particularly the first filipino line, the filipino accent was present. and lastly, the fact that he filmed this, only weeks or months after that unfortunate controversy, blows my mind. dealing with that kind of stuff is so mentally draining and could obviously affect one's mental health but no, he insisted. he needed to continue what he's good at, which is acting. his passion to his craft is honestly one of the reasons why i just fall in love with this korean actor everyday. he had to act like the RENT WAS DUE.
now, is the childe a MINDBLOWING korean film? obviously not. but this just paved the way for seonho's comeback, and the exposure for his versatile acting. he should, at least be nominated honestly.
the childe rating: 8.0 of 10.
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letters as a motif in the glory, specifically when it comes to dongeun and yeojeong. dongeun, whose narration consists of letters she has written to yeonjin over the years, letters she has never sent. pondering letters that dangle the past over yeonjin’s head, filled with details and jabs. yeojeong, who receives letters from the man who killed his father, who describes, letter after letter, what it felt like alongside apologies that he doesn’t mean. letters as a form of torment, of revenge.
and the way it all connects, overall, to the storylines that thread dongeun and yeojeong together as much as they separate one from the other. dongeun, who transformed from bystander into victim, and then intends to transform from victim to perpetrator. who is prepared to be corrupted in order to see yeonjin’s destruction. who considers herself already ruined and destroyed, as someone with nothing left to hurt. someone prepared to stay faithful to her rage and vice, in her own words. vs. yeojeong, who’s been given everything, but still lives with scars from the mental torment and trauma of his father’s death. like dongeun, he is still living in his rock bottom. they both might have risen above it, but it is still haunting them. dongeun’s scars still itch. yeojeong isn’t ‘fixed.’
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"Had she initiated a peck, he would have turned it into an intense lip lock" pairings in KDramas
Ku San Young(Kim Tae Ri) and Lee Hong Sae(Hong Kyung) in Revenant
Cha Se Eum(Kim Young Ae) and Yoo Jeong Jae(Lee Moon Sang) in Maestra: Strings of Truth
Lee Gang Hyeon( Park Ji Hyun) and Jin Yi Soo(Ahn Bo Hyun) in Flex x Cop
Lim Jukyung(Moon Gayoung) and Han Seojun(Hwang Inyeop) in True Beauty
Oh In Joo (Kim Go Eun) and Choi Do il(Wi Ha Joon) in Little Women(2022)
Kang Nam Soon (Lee Yoomi) and Ryu Shi Oh (Byun Woo Seok) in Strong Woman Kang Nam Soon
Kang Sol A(Ryu Hye Young) and Han Joon Hwi(Kim Bum) in Law School
Bonus: Japanese Drama Couple
Didn't get a better GIF for them
Kokuryu Kirika(Mio Imada) and Tennoji Haru (Meguro Ren) in Trillion Game
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I spend a lot of time hating GirlbossTM characters and I love how Oh Yeon-joo is portrayed as active, smart, competent, but not Girlboss.
She doesn't know how to punch or shoot, but she will lock her possessed father in another room and draw like hell until she saves her man and then leave detailed instructions on how to treat yourself from a gunshot wound, while also having drawn everything he needs.
But also, she's not good at standing up for herself against her boss, she cries, she faints a lot.
But it doesn't make her weak or stupid or incompetent, because she will also withstand interrogation for 48 hours and not say a word and starve for most of a week attempting to avoid telling the truth to Kang Cheol again and ruining his life. And she isn't weak because she can't make a Sophie's Choice between the man she loves and her father, that's just natural.
She was a great, fleshed out character who had a lot of difficulties over the show and even if they weren't often as dramatic as the things happening to Kang Cheol, they were difficult and she persevered and I love her.
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What is where in Beyond Evil?
I always wondered where certain locations in the show actually are and how far each of them is apart from the others. Thankfully, the scriptbook has some addresses -- partially fictional, of course -- I can work with.
1. 문주시 (Munju-si) - 파주시 (Paju-si) (*si = city)
In one of the Blu-ray features, they mention that they filmed Dong Sik's neighborhood in Paju.
문산읍 (Munsan-eup) is part of 파주시 (Paju-si) (*eup = small town). It is easy to guess how they came up with the name "문주."
문산천 (Munsancheon River) = 문주천 (Munjucheon River)?
Trivia: The house used as Dong Sik's family house is actually in 용인시 (Yongin-si), which is about 100 km away from Paju. While filming the scene where Joo Won and Dong Sik are on their way to arrest Kang Jin Mook in Ep. 8, the actors momentarily thought they should take Joo Won's car because Manyang Supermarket is in Paju. They realized, soon after, that it is only a few minutes' walk from Dong Sik's house in the show.
2. Han Joo Won's apartment
The scriptbook says Joo Won's apartment is in 서울시 마포구 (Mapo-gu, Seoul-si) (*gu = district).
According to the Naver navigation service, it would take 35~50 minutes from Joo Won's place to Manyang by car. Mind you, I enter a city hall or its equivalent in "from" or "to" for the cities that are not familiar to me, and that's what I did here. Still, it would be safe to say that it takes about 45 minutes commuting for Joo Won, maybe an hour, tops, when the traffic is bad.
3. Han Ki Hwan's house
서울시 강남구 (Gangnam-gu, Seoul-si). The scriptbook says "청암동 (Cheongam-dong)" as well, which is clearly a little tweak from 청담동 (Cheongdam-dong) (*dong = town); it is in the northern part of 강남구. It takes about an hour from here to Joo Won's place by car, but thinking of Seoul's traffic, it might take a bit longer than that depending on the time of the day.
4. 서울경찰청 (Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency)
Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency is in 서울시 종로구 (Jongno-gu, Seoul-si). It takes 25~35 minutes from Joo Won's apartment, and 45~55 minutes from Han Ki Hwan's house by car. But again, it's Seoul, so you can never be sure.
5. 옥산군 (Oksan-gun) - 옥천군 (Okcheon-gun)
옥산군 (Oksan-gun) is where Chief Nam's lakehouse is (*gun = municipality). The actual location is called 옥천군 (Okcheon-gun). It would take 3~3.5 hours from Manyang by car.
6. 부산시 (Busan-si) & 울산시 (Ulsan-si)
In Ep. 8, Dong Sik says he and Chief Nam once arrested a culprit in Ulsan and went to Busan together to have pufferfish soup before going back to Seoul.
It takes 4.5~5 hours from Seoul to Ulsan, and another 1.5 hours from Ulsan to Busan by car. From Manyang to Busan, it would be about 5 hours by car. If you take a KTX train from Seoul Station to Busan Station, it takes about 2.5 hours.
7. 강원도 (Gangwon-do)
In the last episode, it is mentioned that Joo Won is working at a station in Gangwon-do (*do = province).
You can see that it is a fairly big province. As of November 2023, there are 17 police stations in Gangwon-do. Meaning, Joo Won can be anywhere 80~250 km from Manyang. Because I am a shameless JWDS shipper who hopes that Joo Won can go see Dong Sik both in Manyang and Oksan easily, I would like to imagine Joo Won is working at the station in 원주시 (Wonju-si), which would be about 2.5 hours from either Manyang or Oksan by car.
(*All estimated times are based on around 4 pm on a weekday. Of course, if one drives at dawn or in the middle of the night, it would take a much shorter amount of time.)
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