"Psychic Medium" is dark and has nowhere to escape, and people are depressed to watch, although this is a Thai movie, it is written by a Korean screenwriter, Luo Hongyi.
Strictly speaking, this is to move a Korean horror film to Thailand to perform, and screenwriter Luo Hongyun seems to be a representative of Korean film noir. The degree of darkness in his films can be seen in "Psychic Medium".
However, as a screenwriter, he has already relented in "Psychic Medium", but in terms of excitement, he has to mention the Korean horror film he personally directed, "Cry".
Luo Hongyun said: "Psychic Medium" is actually a prequel to "Crying". This may sound misleading, but in fact, in terms of plot, the two are not related, but the core characters cannot avoid the mysterious profession: shaman.
If the core of "Psychic Medium" is the collapse of faith, then the brilliance of "Cry" is that the boundary between God and The Devil is completely broken, and even if the fooled people polish their eyes, they are completely unable to distinguish between good and evil. For what you see may not be true.
"Crying" is a film full of strong religious overtones, but it is very different from the traditional concept of evil and righteousness. The priesthood of God is toyed with in the film, and the incarnation of justice is only an accomplice of the devil. Faithful doctrine and the gospel have become the culprits of blinded faith.
Wet clicks, dirty, pitch black, is the tone of this film. In this small village with continuous rain, mountain fog and muddy roads, the landscape scenery under the long-range lens cannot wash away the gloom and depression brought by such a village, and the layers of mountains have become a cage that villagers cannot escape.
The male protagonist of the film, Zhong Jiu, is set as a timid and cowardly police father, on the one hand, he runs to solve the bizarre murders that continue to occur in the village, on the other hand, he is also haunted by ghosts because his daughter Xiaozhen is also haunted by ghosts, and he does not hesitate to use the power of the police to run amok.
The devil simply throws the bait, but the baiter cannot bear the temptation. The bait is already pointed out at the beginning of the film. Whether it is the red earthworm on the Japanese fishing hook, or Zhong Jiu's desire to save the woman, the invisible and tangible bait are all objects that make people fall into the limelight.
Cry is a horror film, but I think it's a great suspense film. The film uses Zhong Jiu's eyes to lead the audience together, confused between gods and ghosts.
The Japanese old man, the shaman, the woman in white, who is the messenger of justice, and who is the evil demon? Zhong Jiu is faced with difficult choices, and under Zhong Jiu's vision, we are also subject to the confusion of traditional thinking.
This is the most exquisite feature of this film, the director uses various technical splicing, all the way to lead us astray, and then fiercely throw out a different truth, instantly punching the face.
The soul has no bones, the soul has no flesh, how can the living creatures that can be seen and touched during the day be the embodiment of ghosts? This is the standard for judging ghosts and monsters, which has become the biggest obstacle to identification technology. The clergy could not recognize it, and the villagers with mortal eyes were easily deceived.
A murder case in the village is actually just a bland plot, and the mysterious identity of the Japanese old man is the key to the case. We know, and So does Zhong Jiu.
In this process of continuous exploration, even when we see the strange altars and pictures of the victims in the houses of the old Japanese people, we still suspect that he intended to protect the villagers and let the dead rest in peace.
It wasn't until both the Woman in White and the Shaman Nikko pointed out the demonic identity of this foreign Japanese invader that we began to believe in the old man's evil deeds.
So, the climactic ritual duel, the shamanic daylight exorcism and the Japanese casting spells, interspersed with montages, noisy and tense scenes, we all thought it was a fight between the gods and the demons.
And when the shaman daylight that was blocked by the woman in white, vomiting out a filth and fleeing in a hurry was blocked by the moths in the sky and forced to turn back, the phone call to Zhong Jiu pointed out his mistake as if he were remorseful, and told the ghost identity of the woman in white and the true body of the Japanese old man's wizard, and we were pulled back to the original speculation.
Rashomon narrated, like Zhong Jiu, he felt that his IQ was being ruthlessly crushed. And this is not the final answer.
In The Medium, Nim once said that the people in the village called all supernatural things gods, including ghosts. This concept is more clearly reflected in "Crying".
Representing the Catholic God, it does not play any role in the movie. And those fighting creatures who are also gods and ghosts, instead, play the protagonist of the story.
This is exactly what the director wants to express, and there is no obvious boundary between gods and ghosts. The helper is God, the evil person is the devil, and good and evil are all in one thought, and they have nothing to do with their actual identity.
At that moment, when Zhong Jiu slaughtered the black dog for his daughter, had the evil intention of killing the Old Japanese Man and pushed him off the cliff, he had become the embodiment of the demon. Shaman Daylight even revealed the true meaning that he had taken the bait.
However, these confusing identity truths, the director actually quietly laid the groundwork in the details of the film. For example, the naked monster wrapped only in a pair of underwear, the Japanese old man washing under the waterfall, the shot of the shaman daylight casually changing his pants, the white cloth called the crotch, unconsciously connected.
The Japanese old man, the shaman daylight, and the woman in white also conceal the director's irony in the expression of the national emotions of Japan and South Korea.
Although this is a film that constantly throws out religious overtones from beginning to end, director Luo Hongyun does not promote people's belief in religion in the film, but instead weakens the orthodox role of the lens, with the director weakening the meaning of religion.
The blurred boundaries of the identity of gods and demons are actually preaching the morality of persuading people to be good. Ignorance and confusion are not fatal mistakes. What is really deadly is the generation of evil thoughts and the implementation of bad karma, and the success of the devil's temptation depends more on the good thoughts of the seduced person himself.
The dead are gone, the survivors are born, but surviving does not mean liberation and freedom, but rather symbolizes never-ending punishment.
The cry is the harmonic sound of this village called Gucheng, and it is also the sad cry of the survivors who cannot turn back.
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