The Cursed

Well, this certainly exceeded my expectations. I'm not familiar with the director, but I've seen writer Yeon Sang-Ho's other works, Hellbound-5.5 and Train to Busan-7.8. I like T2B very much, but consider HB to be half good/half bad which adds up to average. A Stephen King type, Mr. Yeon started with webtoons and anime but is just getting warmed up when it comes to live action. His inspiration for TC was an actual ritual. What I appreciate about TC is that they aren't trying to 1-up every previous occult horror feature. They go for authenticity, and the effect is truly creepy. They set out to tell a good story in a quality way - They pitchforked it with gusto and tossed it with great verve. Well executed.

This show opens with a brief look into the past and how our younger FL's childhood formed her womanhood. This child's gift has brought her nothing but horror. Ep1 is a decent set up. Ep2 gets ghoulish in more ways than one. Episode 3 turns the screws alittle more. So far, so pretty good. TC is a 2020 release that is rated 79 on AWiki. It is 1 season consisting of 12 60/70-minute episodes. The director is Kim Yong-Wan. His first credited work is the movie Champion. Since then he's put out the film, The Cursed: Dead Man's Prey, and the shows, The Whirlwind and If You Wish Upon Me, along with this show. All his works have solid ratings, and he's just starting out. TC displays his competence at every turn.

Sung Dong-Il (Sisyphus-8, Reply 1988) plays "Jin" Jong-Hyun. I don't know why, I just like the guy. Watching him as the embodiment of evil is not my favorite look on him, though. He's the type of guy who can play a bad guy, a truly loathsome one, that the viewer somehow cannot completely hate. In TC he is dragged into a ritual by his mother. He doesn't even want it, but it forever transforms him. (She opened doors that should have remained closed). I do feel sorry for him. That aside, Mr. Sung is not the perfect fit for the role. This is an excellent show, and the only thing that feels off is him. Jung Ji-So (Doom at Your Service, The Glory, Parasite-9) is Baek SoJin, the younger of the 2 FLs. She must play a cheerless girl that has had a bitter life. She sells it with every cell of her body. She gets a crying scene and she's amazing in it. Im Jin-"Hee"(Little Women) plays reporter Uhm Ji-Won and Jung Moon-Sung is Jung Sung-Joon, her policeman husband. He was investigating the Forrest Company and her investigative reporting led her to look into them as well. Within mere hours, it seems, they are both told to abandon these efforts and work on something else. Mr. Jung plays a painfully subservient and obsequious doctor in Hospital Playlist-9(excellent show with a slow start. Give it 2-3 eps minimum). This is a completely different role which showcases his acting ability. Jo Min-Soo is the shamaness, Jin "Kyung". At first glance, in ep1, I didn't think much of her, but wowie. She slays that part. She slays alot of things in TC. Kim Min-Jae plays Forest CEO, Lee Hwan. He's close to magnificent. He is the diabolical-part-psychopathic CEO. So convincing. Though it's a relatively small part, Kim Shin-Ro, as So-Jin's mother, does an excellent job.

Badguy Jin is the Chairman of Forest which is about to launch their IPO. One of their subsidiaries is "weird." It's a consulting Co led by Shaman Kyung who is also Jin's guide. When one of their compatriots ends up dead in a twisted cursed heap, she is able to reverse-engineer how it happened. From there, they form defensive and offensive strategies. Now they are on the hunt to eliminate their enemy who resides in the shadows.

Who is their enemy? Our 2 FLs have formed an alliance - the reporter/Hee and the HS shaman/SoJin. One demonstration (that dead-twisted-curse-heap) is enough to convince Hee just as it's enough to alert their enemies.

They seek out expert help on spirits and hear: "At first, it heals the sick and helps women get pregnant to show off its magical powers and make believers out of the monks. And once it succeeds in that, the evil spirit steals the souls of the monks and kills them." That's a better description of evil than we get in Western entertainment. We should always remember that the evil are liars.

TC's main focus is curses, & not all these curses are supernatural. It draws a parallel between cursing someone to death by way of evil spirits and cursing someone to death through cruel behavior. It draws a parallel between human behavior and demons. Each person must choose whether to emulate angels or demons. Regardless of your belief system, people know what the right thing to do is, yet the right thing to do is rarely the easy thing. We're all drawn to the dark side. Moral strength is much like physical strength. We must exercise it regularly or it will wane. We need not teach our children to lie or lose their temper or think about themselves. We need to teach them goodness, and we need to practice it ourselves. Then it gets easier.

One thing I applaud is, at one point, a character no longer accepts the rules as they were laid out, and goes the other way with surprising results. It's a reminder to reevaluate your presuppositions once in awhile. For instance, we often see the separation of horror and technology, as horror is often connected to ancient things. It's so old fashioned, right? There's a growing body of work that depicts the forces of evil utilizing technology and the power structure of society to advance its cause. It actually makes sense. Archive 81-7.8 does it well.

KRISHKIM interviewed 📝Yeon Sang Ho, for Zapzee. "Director Yeon began writing TC with a subject of "Bangbup" curse that he found interesting since his childhood. He melted his opinions of current world into the drama. He stated that "this society allows the people to detest others for their own justice and legitimacy." He also added that the fact that the drama empathizes with the "hatred society" is the reason behind breaking the 6% viewer ratings." I couldn't find anything on the "Bangbup" curse to elaborate more. The rituals depicted in the show feel entirely authentic. They have similarities to what is shown in the outstanding film, The Wailing, and the director of that movie asserts that they are accurate. It heightens the creepiness.

The relationship between Baek So-Jin and Im Jin-Hee becomes more touching as the show goes on. Each fills a gap for the other's tragic loss. There's some cool shots including off-eyeball reflections. The sets are full of detail. They put care and craftsmanship into the production. It's a thrill when they bring a variety of shamans in from all over the world. They created an array of looks and personalities. The end of ep8 was a shocker. Where do they go from there? How will they fill 4 more episodes? They set it up in ep9 and manage a couple twists.

They manage to be truly sinister. We see rituals that obviously link us back to past millenia. Worship of spirits is commonplace around the world, and it is commonplace in Asia. The occult is one way people attempt to exert control over their existence. But we don't have any true ability to control such things. Like UFO sightings, 99% nonsense and 1% credible reports and occurrences that can neither be refuted nor explained - that's hair-raising. Have you ever been in a place where you felt an overwhelmingly horrible vibe, even if like me, you aren't one to get vibes? I've experienced it twice, and I'm normally oblivious to my surroundings. It was almost like I could feel the heavy air. I've accepted that my subconscious is picking up on a full spectrum of things that my oblivious conscious mind does not, both the supernatural and the mundane , and I've learned to trust that vibe and be wary.

Immediately upon being possessed by evil, CEO Jin is inspired to start a new social media platform - Forest Co. What makes Forest different is the Forest of Curses, which enables users to curse someone. We will see a group of teenage girls inviting the evil spirits to come to them and curse their enemy. From the outside looking in, this practice is either a waste of time or opening doors that are best left closed. (So don't try it!) It may be more sophisticated to laugh this stuff off, but I do not. We are born 100% self-absorbed. Maturity is learning to be unselfish, but in this narcissistic society, most people never grow up. People think they can exert control over things of which they know nothing. Self-absorbed, immature people think too highly of themselves, their abilities, and their futures. Talk to a high-schooler. Most of them think the world is a place that will welcome them. They will be rich, successful, and contented. They don't believe they can be deceived. Most people have a sense of the supernatural and eternity. Most believe there is more to existence than this 3D world. Many that scoff at these ideas are doing so to be welcomed into the "right" circles. They ignore anything that cannot be explained rationally and scientifically. There's just too much out there that is unexplained, though - too much to be °certain° that this 3D world is all there is to it. Don't overestimate yourself, don't let yourself be snookered, and don't open doors that are best left closed. Do watch TC. It's excellent.

QUOTE📢

There are things that cannot be explained by science.

〰🖍 IMHO

📣8 📝7.3 🎭8.3 🌞3.5 🎨8 ⚡7 🎵/🔊7 😅2 😭5.7 😱6 😯7 😖6.4 🤔6 💤0 🔚8

Poli-wagging 2/10. The shaman determines that no such evil spirit came from Korea. This one has come to them from Japan. Such evil lurks in Japan, not K-Kountry. The Japanese shaman is used to augment the creepy feel, particularly for Koreans. Korea will never love Japan. The history is too poisoned.

Age 16+ occult, gore, violence, language, horror

Re-📺? This is one I would pull for f&f so, yes.