The Restless – Kampf um Midheaven (2006)

The Restless – Kampf um Midheaven: Directed by Dong-oh Jo. With Joon-ho Huh, Kwang-il Kim, Jeong-hak Park, Park Sang-wook. It is AD 924, at the end of the United Shilla Dynasty. Continuous riots sweep the land ruled by a corrupted government. Evil forces are rampant and malicious demons roam the land. YI Kwak, born with the powers to see spirits, joins the royal demon hunting squad, ‘Chuh-yong-dae’ after losing his fiancée, Yon-hwa to evil demons. YI Kwak excels as the most talented warrior of Chuh-yong-dae and the royal squad seems to gain momentum as powerful fighters against the forces of darkness. Then one day, YI Kwak drifts into Joongcheon, the world of the dead through a strange shrine. Joongcheon, the intermediate world between Heaven and Earth, a place souls remain for 49 days, preparing for reincarnation.

“Iu0026#39;ve been watching a lot of Korean movies as of late, since I find that in general their quality is much higher compared to their Chinese (esp. HK) counterparts.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI was quite disappointed after watching The Restless, a Korean action/fantasy/love story. Story involves a battle between good and evil, characters residing in heaven and hell and somewhere in between. Thereu0026#39;s also a love story as well which involves multiple characters.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAlthough the story premise was unique, the execution and acting left much to be desired. Particular poor was that of the main female role of So-hwa, with her intermittent cross-eyed facial expression that really distracted from her portrayal of a higher being. On the other hand, the male main character was quite pleasant on the eye and aside from some annoying hair style was actually quite goo.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe action/fighting sequences were very ordinary (compared to HERO and Matrix, which are my fantasy movie action standards), and the CGI backgrounds used were quite obvious (aside from one initial shot of the midheaven temples). Particularly cheesy was the fight in the woods involving various piercing chains that shot out of the antagonistu0026#39;s body… certainly lacking the graceful flight through the woods that one imagined in Crouching Tiger. Towards the end youu0026#39;ll notice quite a resemblance to the LOTR3 and when Frodo approaches Mt Doom. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eOverall a disappointing movie.”