Jeon Woochi

An action-packed Korean fantasy epic that charts the story of warring wizards transported to a modern city and the chaos they wreak therein, WOOCHI THE DEMON SLAYER sounds great when you see the story written out. Sadly, though, watching the actual movie is a different story altogether. WOOCHI THE DEMON SLAYER turns out to be a weakly-plotted comedy, full of irritating breakneck editing and general disregard for the usual conventions of cinema: it's overlong, rambling, trivial and most of all a bore.

The trailer sells this as a full-blown action movie but it turns out to be a comedy. Now, Asian comedies don't typically do well overseas, so I can see why the trailer was cut that way, but it's still a bit of a cheat. The humour isn't very funny and the script, including various evil wizards, travelling between dimensions, shape-shifting goblins and the like, is all over the place. The one thing the film does boast is some excellent special effects work in the form of above-average CGI, but the elaborate action scenes are spoilt slightly by the disjointed editing and general lack of cohesion. It's a shame, because if the comedy had been toned down and the drama upped, this could have been a very good film indeed; as it stands it's an overlong misfire.

For once, I found the movie actually better than the underwhelming trailer. Woochi is an action fantasy comedy movie with one half taking place in the past and the other in modern South Korea. It's not traditional fantasy with traditional magic. The so-called goblins, only fantasy creatures in here, are actually beast-men able to take human appearance and you only really see two of them (maybe 3 depending on how you count). However, they're really well done and animated. The magic is of the taoist kind with "spells" written on little pieces of paper. Sounds lame but works wonderfully. I found it quite different than the usual and often a delight to behold. Wooji, the title character, is a very confident trickster mage who is a lot of fun and his introduction was a great moment. He's constantly surprising and I loved the character as well as his comic-relief sidekick. The 3 taoist monks were also quite enjoyable and got way more interesting as the movie went on. The ambiguous and stoic main villain had a lot of presence but the "goblins", although excellent martial artists, were bland in terms of personality.

The plot and motives, mostly exposed in the starting moments and in snippets afterwards, were quite forgettable and not really necessary for enjoyment. The special effects were very well done combining seamlessly CGI and real actors. It was even better sometimes than big-budget American movies. Not only that but there were several beautiful original sequences rarely or never seen before (at least by me). Some of those include going in and out of paintings, multiplication of bodies (think Naruto) and flying tramways. The action scenes were exciting and very cool but unfortunately the fights were often too closed-in and fast for my poor eyes. The comedic moments were funny and didn't turn the film into bad parody. I must admit becoming fidgety and my mind wandering more than half-way through as if the movie was too long or had lost part of my interest. I've seen movies that were as long or longer not thinking of when they would end as I did in Woochi. I had a good time watching this film and would recommend a rental to those who like somewhat exotic martial arts fantasies with comedic elements.

Rating : 7 out of 10.

I caught this movie on Netflix. Had never heard about it before, and was pleasantly surprised. The characters are deep, the dialogue is fun, the action is fantastic, the story great, and the special effects OK. Most impressive of all was the solid acting, especially during the final fight sequence. Lovely stuff.

This movie brings me back in time, into a dark movie theater, at the very end of 'The Matrix', back in 1999. It had such a promising ending, and then they announced sequels that turned out to be poor.

Even though 'Woochi' is not a sequel to 'The Matrix', it feels like a movie that successfully went where those sequels didn't go.

Highly recommended for those who enjoy fantasy, action, and a bit of time travel.

Woochi (played by Dong-won Gang) is a powerful wizard who has a lighthearted outlook on life. The story revolves around both Wizards and Goblins wanting possession of a magical pipe that will bestow great power upon them. Woochi's sidekick and best friend is Chorangyi, a dog who mostly walks around in human form, and can also shape shift into a horse. They are in search of a Bronze knife, as well, that would turn Chorangyi permanently into a human.

The visuals are STUNNING!! It is incredibly realistic. There's a lot of slapstick comedy here, and although I generally don't enjoy slapstick, the presentation was very good. This is an action fantasy comedy, after all. When Woochi is framed for murder, him and Chorangyi are imprisoned for 500 years. On their return, Woochi's powers are initially weak, and must still battle Goblins, who make their appearance in the city - still in search of the Pipe. The humor does at times get in the way of the action, but this is nevertheless a very entertaining movie.

The action sequences are well done, and the final act is action-packed with impressive visuals. I enjoy this movie every time.

Crowd Pleasing Film Would Make A Fortune Here In The States If Picked Up for Distribution-(and of course promoted)

I'm not kidding--the crowd i saw it with very much into it the entire time. (one dude was all like "that was the greatest movie i ever saw" i wouldn't say it was the greatest i ever saw--but it was a whooshing good time if you'll pardon the lame attempt at a pun.)

Film is about a wizard in the 1500's who's of course a bit of a sarcastic wise guy--he dozen't listen to his elders for shame!!! He gets tasked with battling and capturing these goblin demons that were set free from some ancient scroll--and ends up getting trapped in a picture (cause he can walk into pictures!) for 500 years--and ends up being released into modern day society where he pretty quickly acclimates.

Plot is very similar to Les Visitors (and its American remake Just Visiting) but with more f/x and slam bang but also the film plays it relatively straight (more going with the flow and accepting the situation and less "aren't our modernistic ways frightening and silly to you folks not from around here??? style jokes....although i really really enjoyed Les Visitors--that one was more about the men trying to comprehend what was happening and much less about the mission.)

Film will bring to mind plot elements from all kinds of other movies--at one point the hero's hand turns to stone to try and crush a bad guy--and that's right out Hellboy of course. (come to think of it the plot itself and the loosely defined bad guys are right out of the first hell-boy movie as well.) The army of mutants is pretty much out of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. (giant mutated rabbit and wolf and guinea pig are some of the goblins woo-chi has to catch) There's even the whole falling in love with the descendant or re-incarnation of loved one from the past time in the new time. (that's a bit as old as Dracula at least.) Woochi even runs smack into a film set and dozen't quite comprehend what the heck is going on (which i know i've seen somewhere else before)

Sometimes it really just dozen't matter if its all been done before though because the film is just so much fun all around. Woochi can bounce around into pictures, into advertisements, into display windows, he also has a sidekick who is essentially a dog in human form. (film gets a lot of laughs out of this) He can become an ink blot drawing at will!

Woochi is a tremendous amount of fun---and I can't believe some studio--even a low budget indie one--dozen't pick this up for a limited run and DVD sale stateside. With just the tiniest bit of commercial promotion--this thing could be a monster hit on par with The Host. (not that that was a monster hit--but you know what i mean--that film got a national release, a good ad campaign, and as such made some coinage because of that....there's no reason why that can get a release and this can't especially since this is a real crowd pleaser...overdone FX effects and all!!) WOOCHI!!!!!!!!