The Wailing (film)

Plot

A Japanese man has recently arrived at a little village in the mountains of South Korea, living in a secluded house. A mysterious disease starts spreading among the villagers, causing a rash which precedes violent murderous outbreaks followed by stupor and eventually death.

Police officer Jong-goo, who is investigating the case, meets a mysterious young woman called Moo-myeong (“no name” in Korean), who tells him about the Japanese stranger, and later disappears. A local hunter tells Jong-goo that he saw the near-naked Japanese stranger eating a raw deer, with glowing red eyes. Jong-goo is unsettled, as he has had dreams about this stranger, which the hunter had described to him.

He enlists the help of another police officer, and a Japanese-speaking priest to serve as translator, and they investigate the stranger's house while he is away. The other police officer finds pictures of the infected and murdered residents and their belongings, as well as an altar room. He is too shocked to say anything to the others. The stranger house's guard dog attacks the priest and Jong-goo. The Japanese stranger arrives and pacifies the dog, and the other three leave.

The police officer tells Jong-goo of what he saw, and hands over a shoe which belongs to Jong-goo's daughter, Hyo-jin. Soon, Hyo-jin becomes sick and displays similar symptoms as the other infected villagers. Jong-goo makes his way to the stranger’s house with the priest in anger, but finds that the pictures and evidence have been burned. Infuriated, he destroys the stranger's worship room and kills the dog when it attacks him, ordering the stranger to leave the village in three days.

Distraught about Hyo-jin's condition, Jong-goo's mother-in-law seeks help from a shaman, Il-gwang. Il-gwang arranges for a killing hex ritual to kill the Japanese man.

As Il-gwang performs a ritual to exorcise the demon, the Japanese man is performing a ritual of his own in front of the photograph he took of Park Choon-bae, the most-recent victim to have killed his entire family and disappeared, who was found dead or catatonic in his truck by the stranger. Both rituals are interrupted before their completion. Jong-goo finds his daughter in extreme pain and interrupts Il-gwang's ritual, taking her to a hospital instead, while the Japanese man appears to nearly suffer a heart attack and crawls away to his room to hide in fear from Moo-myeong. In the morning, the Japanese man visits the body of Choon-bae, but it is no longer in the truck and the Japanese man appears frightened.

Jong-goo gathers his friends to hunt down the stranger, believing that the Japanese man is responsible for the disease and murders. After destroying the stranger's house, including the site of his interrupted ritual, the group is attacked by Choon-bae, who does not seem to feel pain or comprehend what is happening as he tries to eat his former friends. Jong-goo and his friends go after the stranger, who had been hiding to watch the exchange. The Japanese man appears terrified of Moo-myeong, who eventually chases the Japanese man into the path of the group's truck and they hit him. They dispose of his body over the side of the road as Moo-myeong watches from the hills.

When Jong-goo returns home, he finds that Hyo-jin's condition has seemingly improved and is convinced that they were successful in destroying the demon. However, the priest's uncle, who had gone with them to attack the stranger, has fallen victim to the strange curse and killed his family, causing the priest to doubt their success.

Il-gwang encounters Moo-myeong, and starts vomiting blood. Il-gwang rushes to collect his shaman tools and flee the city, only to be stopped and forced to turn back.

Hyo-jin goes missing and Jong-goo finds Moo-myeong lurking near his house as he hunts for his daughter. She requests Jong-goo to believe her that his daughter has just returned home, but tells him she has set a trap for the demon, but the trap will not work if Jong-goo goes back to his house before the demon is caught. She warns him that if he returns before the cock crows three times, his entire family will die. She further says that Il-gwang is in league with the demon and cannot be believed, and that the Japanese man is not dead because death cannot touch him. Il-gwang calls Jong-goo during this exchange, telling him that Moo-myeong is the true demon, and the Japanese man had been an innocent Buddhist shaman who had been keeping her at bay to protect them all.

Confused and unsure whether Moo-myeong or the Japanese man is the true evil, Jong-goo tries to return home save his family after the cock crows only twice. Moo-myeong grabs him, her skin turning a ghostly white as he notices that she is wearing the personal items of some of the victims. He pulls himself away, and as he crosses his home's threshold, the floral demon trap withers.

The priest has meanwhile returned to the Japanese man's house in the hills. Drawn by a flickering light, the priest discovers the still-alive Japanese stranger in a cave and demands to see it's true form. The man calmly states that it truly doesn't matter what he says since the priest's mind is made up. The man laughs and bids the priest to feel his hands and feet, since ghosts do not have bodies (mocking Christian scripture). The man takes the priest's picture, just as he had the other victims.

Jong-goo finds that Hyo-jin has murdered their family and attacks him while he begs her to come to him. Il-gwang arrives at Jong-goo's house and takes photographs of them, and while returning to his car, unintentionally drops a box filled with photos of the other victims.

As Jong-goo lies dying in his home, he sees visions of happier times with his daughter and assures her he will protect her.

Production and release

Filming began August 31, 2014 and finished February 28, 2015.

The Wailing was released in South Korea on May 12, 2016. The film was shown in the Out of Competition section at the Cannes Film Festival on May 18, and received a release in the United States on May 27.

The film is currently streaming on Netflix (USA & Canada).

Reception

The Wailing received widespread critical acclaim. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, it holds a "certified fresh" 99% approval rating and a rating average of 8/10, based on 71 reviews. On review aggregator website Metacritic, the film has an average rating of 81/100 based on 19 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". Jada Yuan of Vulture.com described the film as "operating on a level that makes most American cinema seem clunky and unimaginative".

Remake

In January 2017, it was announced that UK-based Scott Free Productions is in talks to remake the film.