One of the most pleasant surprises to come out of 2016 was the South Korean zombie film, Train to Busan, which seemingly came out of nowhere for most people in the west like me. However, in his home country, the director, Yeon Sang-ho, has already made a name for himself through his animation work with his films, The King of Pigs and The Fake. Train to Busan was his first turn in live action filmmaking, and it was a big success in every regard.
With his follow up, Psychokinesis, we have a film that can be broadly described as a superhero film, but it’s not a type that we’ve seen before, or at the very least, not very much. It’s a little bit of Chronicle, little bit of Hancock, even a little bit of the very underrated Sleight from last year, but it still feels like something wholly its own. We follow Shin Seok-heon (Ryu Seung-ryong), a lowly security guard who tries to reconnect with his daughter, Roo-mi (Shim Eun-kyung), after leaving the family when she was only a child. After hearing news of his ex-wife’s death, he comes back in hopes of making amends by assisting her and her friends in an ongoing real estate conflict between them and a mob-run construction company set out to destroy small businesses. Oh, and also, during a hike, he drinks water contaminated with a mysterious substance that crashed in from outer space, which gives him superhuman abilities. Didn’t want to forget that part, it’s quite important.
In terms of whether this is on the same level of Train to Busan, I don’t think that’s the case, if only in the sense that it lacks the lean, economic storytelling of that film, but it’s a minor gripe that is easily forgivable considering the film is still really great. While I can’t speak to his animated works, which I haven’t seen, the big reason Psychokinesis works is similar to what made Train to Busan so spectacular. Yeon Sang-ho has a way about crafting characters that are effortlessly endearing, and he allows the characters to breathe within the framework of the story, playing with their dynamics, and challenging them, and finding new things to explore. You really get to care about the characters, and you’re invested in the relationship between Seok-heon and Roo-mi, and you want to see him redeem himself in her eyes.
Though I can certainly enjoy the hell out of film like the recent Avengers: Infinity War, there’s an intimacy and relatable truths brought to the forefront here that more often gets buried under all the noise in the bigger productions. We experience these characters engage with the world around them, we meet strange characters all along the way, and we have these incidents that range from comedic, to thrilling, to heartbreaking. As anyone familiar with South Korean cinema would expect, the film is tonally playful. Scenes can start off like we’re watching something out of a slapstick comedy, but in less than a minute, a character can be in serious danger. The reason you’re willing to go through it all is because the characters are so well defined, and each moment, no matter the changes in tone, continues in keeping the spirit of the characters.
There was hardly a moment in Psychokinesis when I wasn’t smiling. One the best feelings I can have is realizing that a filmmaker wasn’t a fluke. I had such a great time with this one, and it easily cements Yeon Sang-ho as a filmmaker to watch. The film is a strange little concoction full of wit, wonder, excitement, and so much heart. Sure, it can be a very silly film a lot of the time, but it is a part of the charm, and it at least embraces the sillier notions of the genre better than some superhero movies that I’ve seen, who seem almost embarrassed to call themselves as such. It’s a joyous film that is absolutely worth seeking out because Yeon Sang-ho understands more than most that all the spectacle in the world won’t mean anything if you don’t have characters worth rooting for.