The Wailing
Short description
The Wailing is a South Korean horror-mystery film written and directed by Na Hong-jin. It takes place in Gokseong, a rural village where a series of savage, unexplained killings throws the community into panic. A reclusive Japanese stranger has recently arrived in the area, and suspicion quickly falls on him, though no one can agree on a cause. Some blame poisoned mushrooms, others point to the outsider, and a local policeman, Jong-goo, watches the chaos with detachment until his own daughter begins to show the same disturbing symptoms as the victims. As the violence spreads and rational explanations run out, he turns to a shaman for help in saving her.
The film is Na's third feature, following The Chaser and The Yellow Sea, and it came before Hope in his filmography. Kwak Do-won plays Jong-goo, with Hwang Jung-min as the shaman Il-gwang, Chun Woo-hee as Moo-myeong, Jun Kunimura as the stranger, and Kim Hwan-hee as the daughter Hyo-jin. Na also wrote the screenplay, and Lim Min-sub produced.
Made for about 11 million dollars, The Wailing took in roughly 50 million worldwide, a strong return for a film of its scale. On IMDb it holds 7.4 from over 78,000 votes, and on TMDB 7.4 from more than 2,100 votes, while the film critics' rating stands at 8 out of 10 from 86 reviews, placing critics notably higher than general audiences.
What's left behind the scenes
- Hyo-jin Kim Hwang-hee (12 years old at the time of the film's release), who played the role of Hyo-jin, admitted in an interview that she couldn't watch the film because she found it very scary.
- This is Jun Kunimura's first Korean film.
- According to director Na Hong-jin, the film mixes Korean and Nepalese religious beliefs, as well as some postulates of Catholic faith.
- The movements of the cursed were choreographed by Park Jae-in, a former gymnast. According to her, the actor whose character dies in the hospital trained for this scene for three months.
- The idea for the film originated from a passage in the Gospel of Luke—lines that appear at the beginning of the movie.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
