Sabaha

You need to have some knowledge about Buddhism to understand the movie, words like samsara,dharma,nirvana, lamaism, etc. Overall the movie is interesting and has a good mysterious atmosphere. Something refeshing for the genre, but this was maybe because im from west. If you are from East maybe you will be already familiarized. I give 7/10 but im biased so i gave it 8.

Pastor Park is infamous for his debunking attitude towards religious stigma, cult belief, its bad practices and how it exploits the mind of general people of a society. It ultimately led him to a cult religious group called Deer Mount which happened to be related to lot of murders of young children who were born in 1999.

This film had "The Wailing (2016)" vibe from the beginning for some reason. Story focuses on specific people only. It had a huge potential to work and build some other characters. Only problem of this film is it lacks a good continuation of some characters that they introduced in the movie, completely drops them later as if they don't exist. I wanted to see police and Pastor Park working together.

Jae-hyun Jang is still young and a toddler among other veteran directors. Writers were inexperienced also. What I liked is, I saw they are hard working people; writers, directors..everyone. It shows that they tried their best to make it happen. It's not too long that there will be some good and great masterpiece from them after right amount of experience they achieve.

I have 0 complain about the actors. All did their parts professionally. This is what I like about Korean Film industry, the actors are super veteran when it comes to acting and you won't find anything to complain.

Ending was satisfying. Final 20 minutes of the film is really does the magic, it literally revived the whole film. I really like some of the symbolic messages they conveyed via Dogs, Elephant and Bird; is pure gold attached to Babylonian mythology. Kudos to director and writers for portraying it in such mysterious way.

Cinematography was average. Too many cuts and angle changes in some of the shots. In films like such as this one, it is best to keep a shot as long as possible since sudden cuts and angle change can and will kill some important momentum and it did for this movie.

Overall, really liked the film. I will give it 7. Don't know why it is so low in rating but definitely not a low six film.

A Korean pastor who specialises in investigating crooked or corrupt religious movements stumbles upon a series of murders that seem to be connected to ancient mythology. A complicated horror mystery with a strong sense of foreboding that makes for a confusing watch at times, but which comes good in the end.

First of all, I really liked the cinematography, lighting, all the things we take for granted in a well-made film that are so obviously missing in a poor film. One shot was like a Dutch Old Master painting, you may spot it. The plot is rather complicated in following the work of an academic debunker of cults and the charlatans who mean to profit, or worse, through manipulation of followers. There is a weird mix of Buddhist and Christian influences in Korean culture which might puzzle viewers in the West like me, but it is worth paying attention and sticking with the story.

This is would be much better if it weren't so messy. The plot is interesting, camera work is good, actors were decent and the effects were ok. For me, there are problems.

There are times where I almost felt that I was watching four different stories. Story one is about a girl and her twin sister, who is a demon or evil. Story two is about a cop who is working a murder case. Story three is about a group of boys who were sent to juvie for various reasons and came out on a mission. And, story four is about a pastor who investigates cults.

It isn't unusual to have several storylines that are interlaced and this one is but it has been done in an odd way. There are characters who are introduced but we see very little of them throughout the film. It is also a bit convoluted when it came to giving a clear understanding about all that was going on but I will be fair in saying that I was watching the film with subtitles and some things may have been lost in translation.

This is marketed as a horror film but it felt like a thriller to me. I watch a lot of horror though and I may be somewhat desensitized. Nothing about it every really rose to a level of horror. Creepy. Maybe. Not horror though.

It isn't a terrible movie. It was hard to follow.