Max Movie looked back and picked the worst five Korean commercial films of this year.
Winter has come again and puts an end to 2021. It was a year when we lost track of time due to the pandemic, but time did not wait for us. Taking the last step to finish 2021, Max Movie looked back and picked the worst five Korean commercial films of this year.
“New Year Blues” – too cheesy to be called “healing”
The movie “New Year Blues” (Directed by Hong Ji-young) tells the story that happens in a week full of fear and excitement of four couples who want to be happier in the new year after the off-season of their lives. It is a production hat combines different stories of four couples over a week before the new year, showing an attempt to create the Korean version of “Love Actually.” However, the stories of the four couples full of love is boring because there is no specific crisis or conflict. Excessive cheesy lines call up the audiences’ antipathy, not empathy, and excessive stories pouring into a small amount of time create awkwardness.
“Seobok” – Park Bo Gum’s bright face is the only thing left in the audiences’ mind
The movie “Seobok” (Directed by Lee Yong-joo) depicts a story that takes place when agent Kiheon (Gong Yoo) tasked with transferring Seobok (Park Bo-gum), the first clone of mankind, was caught up in an unexpected situation in the pursuit of various forces seeking revenge. Like a lengthy and complex synopsis, “Seobok” tried to imply too many stories in a short running time of about two hours. In the midst of various topics, the audiences didn’t feel any fun, the most important virtue of commercial films. Several philosophical discourses of the movie are also not new. Its villains, the fight between life and death, infinity and finiteness is said to be too cliché.
#Whispering Corridors 6: The Humming – excessive setting
The movie “Whispering Corridors 6: The Humming” (directed by Lee Mi-young) is a story about when Eunhee (Kim Seo-hyung), who lost her memories of the past, meets a troublemaker at school – Hayoung (Kim Hyun-soo) then discover a closed bathroom which is hidden for a long time and faces a mysterious things. When the story comes to its climax, all the most interesting details are revealed. The effort to build up all the fear and tension were made in vain because of the socially critical messages that were forcibly mentioned. Bullying, academic competition and teacher immorality are also unique topics of this series. However, the reason for the Gwangju Uprising being mentioned frustrated the viewers.
# The Cursed: Dead Man’s Prey – Plainly developed characters and bad CG
“The Cursed: Dead Man’s Prey” (directed by Kim Yong-kwan) depicts the story about an investigation of a mystery incident to prevent serial murder case turns out to be a revived corpse again. Although this was an extended version of tvN’s drama “The Cursed”, which was aired last year, many people commented saying this story suits the format of a drama more than a movie. It is said that the character’s moves were unique but incomprehensible. The characters, whether they are villains or heroes, lacked charms. In addition, there were neither multi-layered aspects nor characters with deep emotion, following the bad acting of the actors. CG effects were also used a lot but only left an impression of looking unnatural.
# Spiritwalker – Interesting subject disappeared, leaving the movie with only cliché actions
“Spiritwalker” (directed by Yoon Jae-geun) tells about a man who loses his memory and wakes up in a new body every 12 hours struggling to find his real identity while being targeted by everyone. The story of changing the body while having a memory loss left a fresh impression. However, unlike the unique subject, boring stories and directing reduced the viewers’ interest. The construction of repeated small crises and its overcoming made the audiences get tired of watching it. The movie did have high-quality action scenes, but were made in a familiar way in countless action films. During the past 10 years since “The Man From Nowhere” (2010), there have been changes in various action styles and action directing, but such attempts were not seen in “Spiritwalker.“
