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'Psychokinesis' uses black comedy to send a socially conscious message

  • Published : Jan 30, 2018 - 13:35
  • Updated : Jan 30, 2018 - 13:35

What would you do if you suddenly had a supernatural power?

The latest film from Yeon Sang-ho, the director of the 2016 megahit zombie thriller, "Train to Busan," is about a financially-struggling bank guard who one day obtains the psychokinetic ability to move objects with his mind.

After the success of his previous film, you might have expected Yeon to make something like a Hollywood superhero blockbuster. The protagonist of "Psychokinesis," Seok-heon (played by Ryu Seung-ryong), however, never saves the world or takes a special mission from the state intelligence agency. Instead, he plans to use his newly discovered power to make money working as a magician at a night club, thereby solving his own everyday problem. He is just an ordinary middle-aged father, far from being a muscular man in an iconic superhero uniform.

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A still from "Psychokinesis," released by Next Entertainment World
One day, he gets a call from his daughter, Roo-mi (Shim Eun-kyung), who lives separately from him, for the first time in about 10 years. She tells him that her mother, who is also his estranged wife, abruptly died while fiercely resisting a large conglomerate's plan to redevelop her neighborhood into a shopping district. After learning of Roo-mi and her neighbors' situations, Seok-heon comes to use his formidable strength to help them.

Yeon, the animator of "The King of Pigs," "The Fake" and "Seoul Station," seamlessly intertwines the supernatural story with the socially conscious message about the high-handedness of big conglomerates, problems of urban redevelopment and police brutality.

"Psychokinesis" is one of the most impressive films from the director in that sense.

The violent clash between evictees and gangsters hired by the conglomerate to evict local residents is reminiscent of the Yongsan Disaster of January 2009. The mayhem began when a 30-strong group of former residents, who had been evicted from a redevelopment zone in Seoul's central Yongsan area, occupied a dilapidated building to hold a sit-in protest, demanding proper compensation for their forced relocation. A fire broke out when police raided the building to disperse the protesters, resulting in the deaths of six people, including a police officer.

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A still from "Psychokinesis," released by Next Entertainment World
The movie also mocks mainstream Korean news media by showing a TV news program in which a weapons expert says North Korea was responsible for the advent of the "formidable human weapon" among the evictees.

Yeon uses a melange of comical and special effects infused scenes to get the point across and highlight these issues.

The Next Entertainment World release is to open in Korean theaters on Wednesday. (Yonhap)





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