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There is always a thin line of stupidity that a character, be it a detective or a horror movie protagonist, cannot cross with you losing interest. The South Korean horror mystery blend The Wailing crosses that line several times and yet manages to stay effectively atmospheric. This sounds like an impossible task given how oafish Sergeant Jong-gu (Do Won Kwak) is in the course of his investigation of a mysterious set of infections and deaths that plague the village of Gokseong. In his search for answers, Jong-gu does many things that will make you tear your hair out.
This is not the case for the writer and director of The Yellow Sea and The Chaser, Na Hongjin. I personally refer to him as the melodrama master. For instance, there is no such thing as significant plot changes. It is always raining in this film one of the many subtle indications that everyone lives in a dystopia. Whenever we see victims, they are almost always covered in mud, dirt, blood, and sweat. The Wailing is not just a title; it’s a clarion call. Na relentlessly pounds viewers into submission with these shock-and-awe tactics, but he does it so well that I cannot complain about his film’s satisfying but frustratingly ambiguous ending.
The streak of brutal murders sends chills down the spine of Jong-gu, a less-than-brilliant police officer living in a rural area, as he learns that his daughter Hyo-jin (Hwan-hee Kim) seems to be suffering from whatever is offing the other people in the town. Jong-gu is, as the first hour or so suggests, totally lost. At this stage of the film, Na draws out black comedy from his story and manages to win over viewers by transforming Jong-gu into a delightful buffoon. There are dead bodies galore, an evil-looking foreigner in a cabin full of weird photographs, and plague-like omens such as a rock-throwing mute and dead raven along with the dreams that Jong-gu has started having.
This portion of the film is filled with impossible plot twists, which is one of the most uninteresting things to write about in the case of horror/mystery films. So many great films of the genre do not have the burden of pleasing a literal interpretation of reality. However, there are a plethora of details in Jong-gu’s investigation that not only make him look like an absolute moron but also render the events of the rest of the film utterly mindless by association.
There are a plethora of unanswered things in The Wailing related to dietetics and mystery concepts. For instance, one notable thing is that for some reason, Jong-gu, a cop by training, does not arrest the Japanese stranger (Jun Kunimura), even after all the obscure photographs and strange totems discovered strewn all over the Unabomber-standard forest cabin. There is no one supervising Jong-gu’s inquiry, thus he is not instructed in any manner on how to fact-find or gather evidence. Instead, there are just a lot of senseless activities triggered by Jong-gu’s rage and inquisitiveness. This begs the question of the sanity of Jong-gu’s actions which are as irrational as those I have highlighted. Moreover, one has to ask: Why did that other character remain quiet? What has happened to the secondary character? What is going through her mind when he remarks that? Who makes the decisions in this situation?
Seeing his daughter struggling, Jong-gu hires a traditional Korean shaman (Jung-min Hwang) to help alleviate her affliction. The shaman’s attempt to exorcise Hyo-jin is quite an intense scene, and not solely because of the sound. Na is a walker and thinks through things in a detailed manner. He captures every moment of the narrative as though it were a stage, rendering every scene as one of great importance. Jong-gu is left feeling equally as exhausted as the active viewers of the movie. There is no doubt that The Wailing can be turned off, but the film’s appeal is much more admirably troubling because of it.
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