Well Go USA
I’m sure we’re all familiar with Korean mythology and Korean fantasy stories, or at least all of you are. Personally I’ve watched a few Korean movies over the years, although most are of the modern thriller variety. There are cultural aspects of those stories that I’m not really conversant of in the same way I am about a lot of other mythos. It’s a bit of a blindspot. I also haven’t seen the first half of this epic Along with the Gods: The Two Worlds, so I had to look up a few things to keep it all straight.
Along with the Gods: The Last 49 Days completes the fantasy epic from Korean director/writer Kim Yong-hwa (this one is bit over two hours long). The movie takes a very, very loose adaptation of some Korean mythological concepts and tells basically a new story with them. In modern day South Korea, we follow a grim reaper Gang-Lim (Ha Jung-woo), a self-possessed, mopey guardian of the dead and his two assistants, Hewonmak (Ju Ji-hoon) the cool super-warrior, and Deok-choon (Kim Hyang-gi) the empathic teen girl.
Of course they’ve all been doing this for a thousand years, so she’s not really a teen girl, but the mythology setup here leads to two storylines that ultimately connect. Following the events of the last movie, vengeful spirit and former soldier Su-hong (Kim Dong-wook) is dead but conflicted about his path. He doesn’t seem to want to be reincarnated, yet Gang-Lim chooses to take him on a quest through the Seven Hells and difficult trials to save his soul.
Gang-Lim and his two assistants were offered an opportunity by Yeomra (Lee Jung-Jae), the King of the Afterlife: if they successfully reincarnate 49 people within 1000 years after they die, they’ll be able to reincarnate themselves. So while Gang-Lim takes his charge through a CGI-filled adventure of lava demons, dinosaurs (with iffy special effects), and trials, Hewonmak and Deok-choon have a different adventure.
They are charged with ascending an old grandfather who is protected by a local god Sung-Ju (Don Lee) and has protected him against prior guardians. But the two discover secret after secret, unraveling the mystery and their history as slowly a hidden past is shown that explains their characters and connection.
The movie can be jarring at times, switching between Gang-Lim’s CGI tale, the assistant’s dramatic/comedic modern story, and the flashback tales of both. It takes a while to get going, but the final hour really flows well and keeps you interested. Part of the problem is the vast amount of exposition required to get you up to speed; once past that, the movie gets pretty interesting.
There are emotionally heavy moments and really interesting historical battle shots. The CGI bits are a bit unsteady, with the best ones the subtle ones. But the acting of the leads really does shine through, helping connect through a language barrier and a very convoluted mythos.
But really, it’s not as complicated as Lord of the Rings, but Western audiences have a shorthand because we grow up with tales of dwarves and elves and dragons. There are some twists here that were very obvious but some I suspected but were more subtle. Overall, this is a fun look at a foreign fantasy tale, so you’d have to be interested in both of those things. It’s not heavy martial arts or gun action, there are more swords and drama. But if that sounds interesting, this might be just up your alley.
Along With the Gods: The Last 49 Days has a run time of 2 hours 21 minutes and is not rated.
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