Dr. Cheon and the Lost Talisman Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.5

Dr. Cheon and the Lost Talisman Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman February 20, 2024

If The Frighteners and Psych were to have a cinematic child, the result might be something quite like Dr. Cheon and the Lost Talisman (evidently kind of weirdly also known by a title missing a definite article), an engaging Korean film that offers Gang Dong-won (who also starred in the somewhat similar Woochi: The Demon Slayer) as the titular doctor, the grandson of a famous shaman who has gone into the "family business" despite the fact that Cheon doesn't believe in any of that spirit world gobbledygook. That makes Cheon a kind of Korean sibling to Michael J. Fox's Frank Bannister in the Peter Jackson film, in that both men are basically scam artists tricking clients into believing they're dealing with someone with a "particular set of skills". In this case, Cheon is arguably even more of a grifter than Bannister since Cheon actually can't "see dead people" and uses the technical expertise of his assistant Kang Im-bae (Lee Dong-hwi) to convince clients that actual exorcisms have taken place. In that regard, though, Cheon is a rather quick study of people and their surroundings, in a plot point that is very like the way James Roday Rodriguez's Shawn Spencer convinces people he's a gifted psychic in the long running television series.

That aforementioned "Sixth Sense" of seeing dead people (as well as other "spirit world" interlopers) actually falls to this story's damsel in distress, Yoo-kyung (Esom), who shows up at the office of Cheon and Kang and drops a gigantic pile of cash on Cheon's desk with the proviso that the two "exorcists" follow her immediately. That leads them to a seemingly afflicted village (that may remind some of the isolated town at the center of WandaVision), where rather troublingly Yoo-kyung has imprisoned her little sister Yoo-min (Park So- yi) in a closet, having come to the conclusion the little girl is possessed by a villain named Mage* (Huh Joon-ho).

Though it takes a while to get there, it is of course no surprise when it turns out that Cheon and Mage have some "history", history that is ultimately shown via ever expanding flashbacks to involve Cheon's brother and grandfather. That gives the general subtext of Dr. Cheon and the Lost Talisman a fairly standard "revenge" arc, though kind of weirdly the film never totally plays up that aspect, instead offering any number of comedically charged vignettes that deal with both problems in the "real" world as well as hurdles generated by some paranormal forces.

There's an undeniably preposterous amount of coincidence underlying this entire tale, and it's probably salient to note that this evidently sprang from a so-called "webtoon", something that probably contributes to a kind of overall comic book ambience to both the story and the presentational aspects director Kim Seong-sik brings to the project. Perhaps not entirely to its structural benefit, the film tries to go for the gusto with CGI wonderment while also supposedly tugging at the heartstrings with some tragic denouements concerning Cheon, but there's frankly little if any significant emotional content, and if this is intended as a veritable "origin story", it probably leaves more questions unanswered than detailed.

Instead, there's a generally genial sensibility and some fun performances including enjoyable banter between Cheon and Im-bae and special effects that may not have outsized ambitions but which hit their target pretty consistently. While the IMDb kind of weirdly doesn't include this credit, Kim Seong-sik was an Assistant Director on Parasite , and among the enjoyable supporting performances are Lee Jeong-eun and Park Myeong-hoon from that film. This certainly seems to be the first installment in what will be an ongoing series.

*Kind of interestingly, the character is named Mage in the supplement offering short introductions to the central characters, but the IMDb lists a character name that at least hints at a connection to Dr. Cheon.

Dr. Cheon and the Lost Talisman Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Dr. Cheon and the Lost Talisman is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Well Go USA with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. I haven't been able to dig up any real technical information on the shoot, but this is a very appealing digital capture that I wouldn't be surprised to find out had a 4K DI. There are nicely consistent fine detail throughout the presentation, at least with regard to practical props, sets, costumes and actual humans, even with some intentionally heavily graded and in some cases desaturated moments. I was quite pleased to see that a sometime bugaboo on Well Go USA Blu-rays, banding, actually didn't make any appearances in any number of fog or mist shrouded scenes, and there is a rather nicely modulated presentation of brightness qualities in several scenes where light values change. The palette is often toyed with, though once again violet shadings in some of the material featuring Yoo-kyung or the almost cobalt blue tones slathered on a lot of the scenes with Mage don't materially deplete fine detail levels. The CGI is not always completely artful, even with the "comic book" ambience mentioned above, but at least intermittently delivers some fun moments.

Dr. Cheon and the Lost Talisman Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Dr. Cheon and the Lost Talisman features a nicely immersive DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track in Korean. Unsurprisingly, the showiest effects come courtesy of some of the otherworldly moments, and a repeated use of a kind of cosmic chain (one of the less convincing CGI elements on the video side of the ledger) offers some fun swirling effects that pan perceptibly through the side channels, as do some moments where Mage's spirit travels from host to host. A lot of the effects sequences are kind of "turned up to 11" the entire time, with onslaughts of effects and score, though there are some at least occasional moments featuring effective uses of near silence, as in Cheong's "magic bell" that only rings when malevolent spirits are around. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

Dr. Cheon and the Lost Talisman Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Character Bios (HD; 2:55)


• Trailer (HD; 1:51)

Note: As tends to be the case with Well Go USA Blu-ray releases, the disc has been authored so that supplements follow one another automatically (so that clicking on Character Bios is essentially a Play All button. The disc is also authored to automatically move on to trailers for other Well Go USA releases after the Trailer for this film plays. Those trailers for other Well Go USA releases also play automatically at disc boot up.

Additionally, packaging features a slipcover.

Dr. Cheon and the Lost Talisman Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Cheon, Im-bae and kindly elder quasi-shaman Mr. Hwang (Kim Jong-soo) are ultimately joined by Yoo-kyung and Yoo-min as this presumed first installment draws to a close, seemingly obviously paving the way for another showdown between some nefarious otherworldly force and this newly assembled team of would be Ghostbusters. This general introduction to the characters has some amusing interplay even if the story is often predictable. Technical merits are solid, and with caveats noted, Dr. Cheon and the Lost Talisman comes Recommended.