The two partner to battle demonic activity in Korea. The priest, who is an exorcist, sees potential in Yong-hoo after his wound defeated a demon.
After a bout in the United States, he develops a stigmata, which forces him to seek the help of a Father Ahn (Ahn Sung-ki). He uses this anger to become a successful MMA fighter. After a tragic childhood, which involved the deaths of his parents, Yong-hoo has harbored deep resentment towards the Almighty. It will be released in the US and Canada on August 16th, and across various Asian countries throughout the month of August.The film tells the story of Yong-hoo ( Park Seo-joon), a martial arts champion who gains divine powers to fight against a powerful evil force. The Divine Fury is in theatres across Korea.
Still, the movie does have one redeeming quality-at least Park Seo-joon fans can see him without a shirt on. With all these flaws, it’s no wonder that Yoona’s movie Exit beat it in theatres on opening day. Priest An’s character is even more flat, hardly changing over the two-plus hours of screentime. Yong-hoo’s struggle with his faith is resolved quite easily-after all, it’s pretty hard to deny the existence of heaven and hell when you’re literally trying to light demons’ faces on fire. In trying to execute both horror and action, Divine Fury succeeds at neither.Ī bigger weakness is the lack of character development over the course of Divine Fury. At the same time, action fans might find the screeching demons, bloodshot eyes, and occult themes off-putting if they were just looking for some pure ass-kicking. For one, people love horror movies because of how they create a sense of drama and suspense-something that this film eschews in favor of fight scenes. However, we’re not convinced that Divine Fury straddles the two genres well. Divine Fury is as much a horror movie as it is an action movie packed with more than enough pure ass-kicking on the part of Yong-hoo. While Priest An prefers to use the words of God to fight demons, Yong-hoo has a much more kinetic approach to exorcism-beat the crap out of the demon and light their face on fire with his Stigmata (he’s an MMA fighter, after all). The duo spend considerable screen time discussing theology and the role of religion, but An also becomes a father figure for Yong-hoo as they battle possessed souls.
Although Yong-hoo is initially reluctant, he starts to help An out with the exorcisms, and Divine Fury almost takes on a buddy cop vibe. Buddy Cops Versus DemonsĪs it happens, priest An (Ahn Sung-ki) works as a full-time exorcist, using a holy cross and the power of Latin chants to remove demons from the human bodies that they take over. An tells Yong-hoo that his wound is in fact a Stigmata, with the ability to exorcise demons by lighting their faces on fire. He finally decides to visit a priest named An, who notices the resemblance with Jesus’ crucifixion. After one fight, Yong-hoo starts bleeding from his palms-a phenomenon that doctors struggle to explain. Some years later, the adult Yong-hoo is now a famous (atheist) mixed martial arts fighter.
This doubt only intensifies when a drunk motorist kills Yong-hoo’s father. Yong-hoo’s mother died in childbirth, which makes him question his father’s strong belief in the power of prayer. The film begins with Yong-hoo (Park Seo-joon) and his policeman father discussing their Christian faith. Thus, we’re not surprised that, despite a broader East Asian cinematic landscape more known for ghosts and traditional folk religion, Korean horror flick The Divine Fury takes on a heavy Christian theme. South Korea stands out among East Asian countries for being heavily Christian- almost a third of its population identifies as such. Park Seo-joon loses his shirt (Image courtesy of Well Go USA).