Blood Rain (Korean): I'm sorry, what just happened?

I really want to rank this film higher because it was beautifully shot with great costumes, scenery, and a wonderful score. However, the story is just too difficult to follow.

Perhaps it is because I am not Korean, or because Korean names all start to sound the same to me after I hear a bunch of them; or maybe it is because almost every character in this movie (other than the handful of women in it) had the same facial hair setup, but I don't really know what the hell just happened.

I watched it because it appeared on a list that I am going to ignore henceforth of "shocking Korean movies" and I was excited because well, I enjoy Korean movies. This one, however, was just too convoluted for me. If you feel differently or if you are Korean and a big fan of this film I apologize, but for me I wasn't entirely sure what was going on even after re-watching it.

The film seems to focus on an isolated island that is famous for its modern (for the time period presented) paper factory but some grisly murders happened there. A mainland government detective (of sorts) comes over to the island with some soldiers to try to figure things out. What he discovers is that the murders are part of a revenge reenactment of executions that was conducted against previous inhabitants nearly a decade ago. The original people were murdered (mostly) for being Catholic by government officials.

I think maybe this film was seen as being "shocking" because there are some pretty gruesome murder sequences including someone getting drawn and quartered that from a gore perspective anyway, were very well shot. However, this is not what my idea of "shocking" is. I want a twist that was completely unexpected but still makes sense. The only really shocking thing (other than the gore) was a sequence at the end where the villagers start killing themselves because they are overcome by some "blood rain" that falls at the very end and confirms their beliefs in what was presented throughout the film as superstitious nonsense.

great costumes and scenery though

I find that this film is too difficult to follow and therefore can not give it really high marks for anything other than artistic integrity.

If you are following my advice on which Korean movies to have a look at, i would suggest that you skip this one because after watching it twice, I am not really even sure what is going on for the most part. Maybe I'm stupid, but i just don't get it.

3 / 10 ( basically, skip it, there are better things to watch for now )

As always i welcome your comments!