The Divine Fury (2019) Review
Directed By: Kim Joo-hwan
Starring: Park Seo-jun, Ahn Sung-ki, Woo Do-hwan
Synopsis: 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
Review: Once again I have been drawn to more asian cinema. This time round it’s a horror, martial arts movie. More horror to be exact.
The movie opens on a rather sad note, where we witness our soon to be hero Yong-hu witnessing the death of his father. After this it flashes forward to Yong-Hu in present day. He is now a champion MMA fighter, but has lost all faith in God. A mysterious wound appears on Yong-hu’s hand, which he soon begins to learn can be used to smite demons. To guide Yong-hu on his journey is a Father Ahn, a priest who specialises in exorcisms and the supernatural world. Yong-Hu and Father Ahn soon cross paths with a demon named Ji-Shin who aims to put a stop to the duo.
I particularly liked the movie, it’s character and story driven which is always a plus. The characters of Yong-Hu and Father Ahn are very likeable. The villain Ji-Shin isn’t very intimerdating, he has one true moment of what I would class as pure evil, but apart from that he isn’t really used as much or as well as he could have been.
The finale of the movie is really good, Martial arts fans will relish as Yong-Hu takes on a group of demons before taking on Ji-Shin in a brutal fast paced fight.
The run time was slightly over 2 hours, but don’t let that put you off as the time flies in. With the movie being classed as a horror there isn’t any jump out scares, more just disturbing scenes along with gore. The action scenes are well choreographed and watching Yong-Hu smite demons is really cool. I personally would love to see a sequel to this as it’s such a pleasing movie. Definetly one to watch!
