It’s a slow burn, to be sure, and Jong-ho works diligently to tease those viewers who might go in blind as to whether or not Monstrum is even real.īut in the meantime, we get to see our central quartet bounce nicely off each other - especially Myung-min and In-kwon as two bantering warrior brothers who feel like all three male leads from The Hidden Fortress thrown in a blender. Monstrum is no different, a sumptuously-presented feudal actioner that throws a big furry beastie into the mix without breaking a sweat.įor the first hour, Monstrum feels largely like an amped-up tale of palace intrigue attentive audiences will have to keep close attention to the various political players vying to knock off Jungjong, while Jong-ho and co-writer Heo Dam’s script heaps on loads of soapy exposition about Myung’s relationship with Yun-kyum. Korean media has been melding the horror and period genres for a while now, zombie properties like Kingdom and Rampant mining the rich textures of the Joseon dynasty to elevate their gloopy genre delights with some wuxia-adjacent swordsmanship. Aided by his bumbling brother Sung-han (Kim In-kwon), his adopted daughter Myung ( Lee Hye-ri), and a handsome young officer of the royal court ( Parasite‘s Choi Woo-shik), Yun-Kyum’s team bits off more than they can chew. To solve the mystery about whether this “Monstrum” is real (and to stave off a potential coup from the Prime Minister (Lee Geung-young)), Jungjong calls his retired general Yun-kyum (Kim Myung-min) from a pastoral life in the woods to lead an investigation. However, Joseon is still reeling from a deadly plague that beset the land a decade prior, and rumors begin to fly about a mysterious creature roaming Mount Inwangsan and sending the public into a panic. “Based on a true story” in the loosest possible sense (extrapolating from a snippet of the Annals of the Joseon Dynasty), Monstrum transports us to 16th-century Korea, when King Jungjong (Park Hee-soon) rules with a benevolent hand. Luckily, horror streaming service Shudder and director Heo Jong-ho have you covered with Monstrum (Korean title: Mulgoe), a sumptuous period actioner that scratches a very specific itch: what if a sumptuous East Asian medieval epic also included a pus-covered lion bear? But sometimes you just want to watch some goofy monster schlock filled with a high body count and more wisecracks than you can shake a sword at. You’ve got your Chan-wook Parks, your Lee Chang-dongs, the rest of Bong Joon-ho’s rich filmography to choose from - all richly-layered dramas of beautiful subtext and incredible command of tone.
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With Parasite taking home Best Picture at this year’s Academy Awards, it’s never been a better time to sample the rich, vibrant tapestry of Korean cinema. Shudder brings us a gory, goofy mix of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Tremors.