7 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
After losing his father at a young age in a terrible accident, Yong-hu (Park) abandons his Christian faith and chooses to only believe in himself. Now as an adult, Yong-hu is a champion fighter and has everything he has ever wanted, that is until mysterious wounds appear in the palms of his hands. He solicits help from a local priest Father Ahn (Ahn), hoping the priest can help relieve him of the painful markings only to find himself in the middle of a dangerous fight against otherworldly evil forces seeking to wreak havoc on the human world.
Starring: Park Seo-joon, Ahn Sung-ki, Choi Woo-sik, Lee Seung-joon, Jo Eun-hyungForeign | 100% |
Horror | 49% |
Martial arts | 19% |
Thriller | Insignificant |
Sport | Insignificant |
Action | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Korean: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Korean: Dolby Digital 2.0
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English: Dolby Digital 2.0
English
Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
DVD copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 2.5 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 1.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
What religion do you associate with the Korean peninsula, if you in fact associate any religion with that region at all? Kind of surprisingly (at least to me, anyway), a lot of Koreans, in fact the vast majority of them, evidently don’t describe themselves as belonging to any organized religion, but among those who do identify themselves as being affiliated with a set of beliefs, Buddhism is not the “leader”, which I personally found at least a little unexpected. Instead, Protestantism is evidently the most subscribed to form of belief, though Buddhism comes in a relatively close second. Catholicism is (again, perhaps surprisingly) the “winner” of the “bronze” in this particular competition, which means that the Catholic underpinning of The Divine Fury is at least somewhat based in fact. That said, The Divine Fury struggles pretty mightily to sustain its conceit, which involves a man named Yong-hoo* (Park Seo-joon) who is (are you ready?) a Mixed Martial Arts fighter who develops a stigmata which magically provides him with the power to expel and/or kill demons who have possessed various Koreans. How’s that for a so-called “high concept”?
The Divine Fury is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Well Go USA with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. The IMDb lists a couple of Arri Alexa models as having been utilized on this shoot, with a 2K DI. This is a rather stylish looking film, one that is often bathed in deep reds, blues and purples, with a perhaps surprising amount of detail and even fine detail able to penetrate the rather aggressive grading. Brightly lit moments, as in the opening vignette between little Yong-hoo and his father, really pop quite warmly and have a natural looking palette. Some of the CGI can look a bit soft, especially some of the lighting effects surrounding Yong-hoo's hand, but other effects like the stigmata itself can be rather gruesome looking. There are some deficits in shadow detail in the very darkest scenes in the film, notably the sequence I compared above to the "boss level" in a video game.
The Divine Fury features DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mixes in the original Korean and an English dub. There actually is a brief flirtation with English in the Korean language version (during the MMA fight), but my advice is to stick with the original language version unless reading subtitles is absolute anathema to you. There's good surround activity throughout this presentation, with expected crowd moments like the MMA bout providing consistent immersion, and with the various showdowns with those afflicted with demons also often offering good discrete channelization of effects. Dialogue, score and effects are all rendered cleanly and clearly with excellent fidelity and generally good prioritization.
- Special Effects (1080i; 1:35)
- Item Commentary (1080i; 3:22) looks at props.
- Production Documentary (1080i; 3:35)
- The World of Evil (1080i; 1:47)
- Interview with James Jean (1080p; 1:52)
The Divine Fury has somewhat muddled metaphysics but perhaps more problematically simply doesn't provide much in the way of actual scares. Instead, this begins as a rather interesting analysis of a man devoured by his own rage against fate and/or Divinity, but quickly devolves into a silly escapade where seemingly every other Korean has been possessed by some nefarious demon. The film is rather stylish, though, and for those considering a purchase, technical merits are solid.
Hai Phuong
2019
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