Director: Shin Jeong-won
Year: 2009
Country: South Korea
Alternate Titles: Chawu, Chawz
Genre: Nature-Run-Amok
Plot:
Transplanted to a remote village station, a police officer sent to investigate a series of strange animal attacks finds the area is part of the hunting grounds belonging to a vicious, man-eating boar and must team up with a group of eccentric locals to stop it's bloodthirsty rampage.
Review:
Frankly, this was quite an uneven creature feature. When this one works, a lot of it's positives come from the exceptionally enjoyable creature feature setups. There is a lot of great action within here, from the first attacks in the outskirts of the village where the victims are killed off in savage attacks to the first real appearance of the creature when it strikes the fruit-field and drags a victim away. That this leads into the stellar hunting scene in the wilderness followed by the utterly phenomenal massacre at the festival to celebrate the capture which is one of the finest parts of the film being filled with some absolutely stellar action taking out the various members of the community present. The wild and frenzied finale, going from a series of encounters in the forest to the final confrontation in the factory is a great finish and offers even more fun to like about it.
Among it's most egregious faults is the fact that this one really goes for an uneven tone that's somewhat distracting overall here. The influx of comedy at times works nicely, yet there's numerous times where comes off as distracting more than anything, especially with gags like the repeatedly falling down a hill, stumbling across loose body parts in the woods or encountering ravening drunks in the middle of the village which are just part of the comedic touches featured in here. These are bland, boring gags that just eat up time here to make this one seem far longer than it really needs to be, as this tone clashes wildly with the more serious creature feature action presented here.
Likewise, the film just in general is far too long and doesn't really need to be as lengthy as it is since these are just unneeded and don't add much to the film. Not only is the comedy aspect of the film way too engaged but there are way too many sideplots about the people of the village that have little reason for being included, ranging from the treatment of the mother he has to take care of to the rather eccentric characters living in the village that are shown engaging in rather full detail of their lives while living in the village and all the time spent on rehearsing for the video they film out in the wild are just pointless filler that drag away from it's best feature, the giant man-eating pig running around so it's far longer than it really needs to be. These here are what really hold this one down.
Overview: *** 1/2/5
While there are some factors that do harm this one overall, the fact that we get enough solid, likable elements here means that it does manage to entertain in the end. This is heartily recommended to creature feature fans looking for something a little out of the ordinary from their usual realms or are curious about the country's genre output, while those put off by the flaws here are advised to seek caution.
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