The Devine Fury 사자

It could have been a great analysis of faith but it eschews this for the safety net of basic demonic possession and action beats.

Directed by Jason Kim Joo-hwan

Starring: Park Seo-joon, Ahn Sung-ki and Woo Do-hwan

Approx. 129 mins

South Korea, Korean

2019

On paper The Devine Fury sounded intriguing; action horror hybrid exploring the depths of Christianity and exorcism but the end delivery is a formulaic mild manner film.

Yong-Hoo’s mother died when birthing Yong-Hoo so now he lives with his policeman father (Seung-Joon Lee) who is a the epiphany of righteousness and a straight up good guy. During a routine traffic stop Yong-Hoo’s father gets seriously injured and being a family of devout Christians Yong-Hoo prays to God all night but to no avail, his father passes away, this in turn fuels Yong-Hoo’s hatred towards God who has now taken both his parents. Years later adult Yong-Hoo (Park Yong-Kyu) is now an atheist and famous professional MMA fighter. During a return trip home he starts having dreams and wakes with a blood wound on his palm, with doctors unable to diagnose the cause of the injury. Yong-Hoo is eventually pointed to a priest / exorcist, Father Ahn (Ahn Sung-ki ) who recognises the wound as the Stigmata, which is an ability to exorcise demons with touch. Soon Yong-Hoo decides to join Father Ahn in his exorcising crusade and they eventually encounter the evil mastermind Ji-sin (Woo Do-hwan) practising the dark arts and sacrificing individuals for his own gain.

The Devine Fury is a combination of horror and action but neither really satisfies, the horror elements utilises the basic necessities of the genre such as punctuating scores, dark shadows and lots of flashing lights while the action beats are not particularly interestingly choreographed. Horror staples are present throughout such as a demonic woman, a possessed child, crows, blood spewing and tools utilised such as holy water, chants and crufixes are pretty much your standard affairs while it never really strives to be anything more creative or explains much of Father Ahns excorsising abilities or the world surrounding it. The strong hues of red lighting are obvious ploys in inciting horror scenes and can sometime grate.

As for the protagonist of the film Ji-Sin’s motives is such a typical affair, trying to maintain eternal youth but it is never explored why he wishes to do so and how he has come into contact with such abilities. In fact the film is devoid of much in terms of exploring the demonic world and why are they present. Ji-Sin also has a group of followers / henchmen but they are never really given much to do and its never obvious why they are fully invested in Ji-Sins cause.

Action wise the film is pretty light in terms of fights even though Yong-Hoo is an MMA fighter, the first bout in the ring is such a substandard affair shot with a wide angle single take but choreography is monotonous so it never really showcase why Yong-Hoo is such a formidable fighter. The biggest action set piece comes at the finale where Yong-Hoo storms the base of Ji-Sin and Yong-Hoo takes on multiple opponents which again is done in one single take but yet again choreography is pretty much your standard punch and kick combination lacking creativity. In fact the fights could have benefited from much faster editing and frantic camera movements to add intensity to the fights. Yong-Hoo soon goes mano-o-mano with Si-Jin which has minor flashes of creativity with some impressive wire enhanced acrobatic movements but it never evolves into anything more. Set pieces in between the opening and ending features little in terms of action set pieces but are more focused on character building and demonic exorcism.

The film could have been an interesting voice on the debate of faith but Director Kim eschews this with such standard story telling never really selling either side of the argument making Yong-Hoo’s renouncement of faith to his eventual belief coming rather weak. Clearly trying to set itself as a franchise the film ends with a scene of a young priest Father Choi (Choi Woo-Sik), who plays a minor role in the whole proceedings but the finale sees him being set for a bigger character in the next instalment but this character has not been explored or warranted so his final focus is jarring. As per usual for Korean productions the visual effects are top notch as is the production design and everything is meticulous as well as pretty looking and that includes the actors themselves.

With the massive success of Jason Kim Joo-hwan previous film Midnight Runners (2017), The Devine Fury has allowed Kim with more creative freedom but it seems that the premise was intriguing but at times it feels that Kim is playing it safe, never fully committing to any of his premises. The character bonding is never but a few dialogue scenes that don’t actually go anywhere in particular. The demon exorcisms are borrowed elements from The Exorcist and even from the Keanu Reeves film Constantine. Yong-Hoo’s childhood Christian believes is not built towards but thrust in the audiences faces and his eventual renouncement feels like a device as to natural progression as is his eventual belief again. Father Ahn is very one note and there is no character to him, he’s just an all round nice guy and stays that way throughout.

Park Yong-kyu previously collaborated with Kim on Midnight Runners, is rather bland in his performance never really selling his progression. Ahn Sung-ki has an eclectic career with over 130 films; Musa (2000), Silmido (2003), Arahan (2004) and The Devine Move (2014), here he commands a good presence and audience really belief his benevolent nature it’s just a shame that he is written as such a one note character. Woo Do-hwan best known for his TV work and previously seen in smaller roles in Operation Chromite (2016) and Master (2016) looks menacing enough but he is mainly regulated to hiding in the shadows are grinning manically at the camera.

As much as the criticism levelled at the film it’s still a intermittently entertaining film to watch, its pretty save in its execution and can easily satiate the general public but those looking for clever storytelling, scares or action can avoid.