Jeon Woochi

For once, I found the movie actually better than the underwhelming trailer. Woochi is an action fantasy comedy movie with one half taking place in the past and the other in modern South Korea. It's not traditional fantasy with traditional magic. The so-called goblins, only fantasy creatures in here, are actually beast-men able to take human appearance and you only really see two of them (maybe 3 depending on how you count). However, they're really well done and animated. The magic is of the taoist kind with "spells" written on little pieces of paper. Sounds lame but works wonderfully. I found it quite different than the usual and often a delight to behold. Wooji, the title character, is a very confident trickster mage who is a lot of fun and his introduction was a great moment. He's constantly surprising and I loved the character as well as his comic-relief sidekick. The 3 taoist monks were also quite enjoyable and got way more interesting as the movie went on. The ambiguous and stoic main villain had a lot of presence but the "goblins", although excellent martial artists, were bland in terms of personality.

The plot and motives, mostly exposed in the starting moments and in snippets afterwards, were quite forgettable and not really necessary for enjoyment. The special effects were very well done combining seamlessly CGI and real actors. It was even better sometimes than big-budget American movies. Not only that but there were several beautiful original sequences rarely or never seen before (at least by me). Some of those include going in and out of paintings, multiplication of bodies (think Naruto) and flying tramways. The action scenes were exciting and very cool but unfortunately the fights were often too closed-in and fast for my poor eyes. The comedic moments were funny and didn't turn the film into bad parody. I must admit becoming fidgety and my mind wandering more than half-way through as if the movie was too long or had lost part of my interest. I've seen movies that were as long or longer not thinking of when they would end as I did in Woochi. I had a good time watching this film and would recommend a rental to those who like somewhat exotic martial arts fantasies with comedic elements.

Rating : 7 out of 10.

Woochi (played by Dong-won Gang) is a powerful wizard who has a lighthearted outlook on life. The story revolves around both Wizards and Goblins wanting possession of a magical pipe that will bestow great power upon them. Woochi's sidekick and best friend is Chorangyi, a dog who mostly walks around in human form, and can also shape shift into a horse. They are in search of a Bronze knife, as well, that would turn Chorangyi permanently into a human.

The visuals are STUNNING!! It is incredibly realistic. There's a lot of slapstick comedy here, and although I generally don't enjoy slapstick, the presentation was very good. This is an action fantasy comedy, after all. When Woochi is framed for murder, him and Chorangyi are imprisoned for 500 years. On their return, Woochi's powers are initially weak, and must still battle Goblins, who make their appearance in the city - still in search of the Pipe. The humor does at times get in the way of the action, but this is nevertheless a very entertaining movie.

The action sequences are well done, and the final act is action-packed with impressive visuals. I enjoy this movie every time.

+ A good mix between classic Wu-Xiapian movies and time-travel humor. It never fails to deliver laughs or to impress with witty action. Scrolls, seals, ideograms and magic tricks dispensed by the terrific cast are used to serve both the action and the comic relief. No flashy CGI it's cool and discrete. (The audience burst in laughs when they did the old school 'white smoke' metamorphosis trick.)

• The film lacks a good editing though (a recurrent handicap in Korean movies). Despite the great acting of the cast, it tends to slow down when trying to develop the very secondary female characters. This is probably due to the presence of many Korean movie stars who always insist to get a lot of screen time for their characters even if that doesn't serve the storyline.

I'll give it a 8 because of all the good laughs and this very refreshing and magical atmosphere the movie provides. While Korea's grown famous for pushing to export crappy CGI movies out of sheer patriotism but this isn't one of them. Woochi actually delivers.

A film with time travelling Goblin Rabbits trying to steal a pipe that will….I don't know what. This is Asian cinema at its best. A story built on eastern story telling. Young buck, wise old master, humorous sidekick (who may or may not be a dog of indeterminate gender) and a love interest with guts and gumption when needed most.

Following the apprentice Wizard Woochi (Don Wong-Kan) and his shape shifting Dogberry-esque friend Chorangyi and their hunt for the magic that will make Woochi's name and Chorangyi human.

Fight scenes of inventiveness that take the stylistic quirks of the later Matrix films and make them great, comedic timing and watch out for the reality of magic in the second act (21st century) as we find out what would really happen if you had to seek out a magic painting at two in the morning in downtown Pyongyang.

Betrayal, magic, drunken Taoist gods who can't seem to get anything right and a downbeat upbeat ending that wraps the film up in the brilliance of the eponymous hero's own imagination.

This is a film for teenagers, lovers of story and people who don't take themselves seriously.

Big bag of popcorn.

Combining fantasy, adventure, action and humour to maximum effect, this lively Korean film deserves to be seen by as big an audience as possible. Writer/director Dong-hun Choi, best-known for his excellent con-artist films THE BIG SWINDLE (2004) and TAZZA : THE HIGH ROLLERS (2006), takes an unexpected turn into fantasy/action territory, but again shows why he is such a highly-regarded film-maker. Using the time-travel premise that was well-used in films such as ICEMAN COMETH (from Hong Kong) and of course HIGHLANDER, WOO-CHI makes the most of the material, helped along by a strong cast and superior technical crew. Dong-won Kang (from SECRET REUNION, DUELIST, VOICE OF A MURDERER, and the very funny TOO BEAUTIFUL TOO LIE)is excellent as the title character, making a flawed, at-times quite vein person likable. The great Yun-seok Kim, who impressed audiences in RUNNING TURTLE and inparticular in the brilliant THE CHASER, is perfectly cast as Woo-chi's main nemesis. Su-jeong Lim (from Park Chan-wook's under-rated I'M A CYBORG, BUT THAT'S OK and the outstanding A TALE OF TWO SISTERS)is perfect as the object of Woo-chi's affections. It's also great to see Dong-hun regular Yun-shik Baek (TAZZA / THE BIG SWINDLE / THE ART OF FIGHTING / SAVE THE GREEN PLANET) make a very welcome appearance. With $200 million Hollywood productions failing to make the grade, it is wonderful to see a film like WOO-CHI deliver such high-class entertainment on a fraction of the budget. Fast-paced, exciting, very funny, and full of vibrant, involving characters, JEON WOO-CHI : THE TAOIST WIZARD will certainly be one of my best films of the year. One hopes it will get a proper international release (unfortunately the director's other films have yet to achieve a deserving release outside of South Korea).