Haunters

Second time watching this, many years after the first. This movie is just really damn cool. Gang Dong-Won looks fantastic with the kinda messed up hair, rail-thin, physically weak body, and the crazy eyes he gives not only when controlling the minds of his victims, but just when he's looking around or searching for his victims/nemesis. The other guy Go Soo does a fine job too. Although at the beginning he is portrayed as a sort of simpleton, that aspect seems to fade somewhat during the film for some reason. So it's basically these two stalking each other through the city, using their particular gifts to try and take the other down. The bad guy is certainly careless and had a number of opportunities to finish off the good guy but what kind of story would that be. One of the both more frustrating and more admirable aspects of the film is how it never really explains exactly what's going on with, especially, Kyu-Nam. He seems to recover awfully quickly from severe injuries and displays some unusual feats of strength, and also has his obvious mind-control resistance. SPOILERS: The end of the movie finally makes it totally clear that there's something going on with the guy, and that's where I found myself wishing a sequel had been made. Maybe it's better to just leave it as it is though.

There are a few issues with the film. It says he has to 'see' his victim to control them, but there are multiple instances of him not even being in the same room or not still being able to see the people he's controlling (like while driving). Maybe just to 'start' controlling them he has to see them? I don't know. Their ability to find one another was also a bit far-fetched. It's a big city. The movie has to keep moving forward though. Also bothered me when the guy is on the ground in the subway station bleeding all over the place and people are just walking by like nothing out of the ordinary is happening. This isn't New York, guys (or at least that's what I've heard about New York). I don't see things happening this way in a (I assume to be) Seoul subway station. Also, how'd he get that leg back on so quickly?

Aside from all that, the movie is not a masterpiece, but a thoroughly enjoyable 'superpower' action film with good performances all around, some dramatic moments with real consequences, good character development so those consequences are actually felt, and a pretty satisfying conclusion.

I'd give it an 8/10.