South Korean Film
Monstrum (South Korean Movie Review & Summary)
Monstrum poster
- Genre: Horror, period drama, Action, thriller
- Date Released: September 2019
- Origin: South Korea
- Film:
Cast:
- Kim Myung-min as Yun-kyum
- Kim In-kwon as Sung-han
- Lee Hye-ri as Myung
- Choi Woo-shik as Hur
- Park Hee-soon as King Jungjong
- Lee Moon-young as Sim Woon
- Park Sung-woong as Jin-yong
- Lee Kyu-bok as Mo-gae
Review & Summary
This movie was apparently based on real event which happened in 1527, Joseon Period, during the reign of King Jungjong. There was a monster in the palace so he had to move out for a while.
Anyway, the movie started during the early days of the reign of King JungJong. He was a very weak ruler. He was more of a figurehead and the ministers were abusing their roles, issuing orders by themselves. One of the orders was to completely annihilate a village where there was a plague.
Everyone was killed, men, women, and children except a little girl who was protectively held by her dead mother.
General Yun Kyum could not believe the massacre that happened. He picked the girl up and went to the king during a morning court meeting and reported what had happened and that he would not allow the girl to be killed.
Some of the young ministers vouched for his good behavior and therefore he escaped the death penalty. However, he was stripped of his position and the king had announced that Yun Kyum must never show his face in the palace ever again.
Yun Kyum left his trusted sword and walked out with the little girl safely in his arms.
Seven years later, the little girl, Myung, had grown into an able archer and a feisty young lady. She lives with her ‘father’ Yun Kyum and uncle Sung Han in the remotest place by the mountain. They live mostly on vegetables and fish. Lately, they have noticed that animals have drastically reduced in number.
Though there were only three of them, they were happy and content.
One day, out of the blue a young scholar, Hur, from the palace came to see Yun Kyum. He said that he was sent by the king who wanted to see Yun Kyum.
The king then suddenly appeared and had told Yun Kyum that there was another plague in the country but that was not the real problem. There were rumors that there was a monster that had been killing the people faster than the plague itself.
The king formally apologised to Yun Kyum and told him that he was the only one he trusts. The king wants him to take up his sword again and investigate whether the monster does exist.
As it was an order by the king, Yun Kyum had to obey. With Sung Han and Myung, he went back to the capital.
They have started investigating the scene of a recent massacre. What they found out was that it was man-made rather than by a monster.
But there were more incidents and witnesses were swearing that they saw the monster.
With Yun Kyum, Sung Han, Myung, and Hur, they led the hunt for the monster. They found some ordinary people who volunteered and some who were conscripted to join the hunt. The government military led by General Jin Yong escorted them.
While deep in the mountain, General Jin Yong attacked the volunteers who were working with his army. He killed every single one.
Yun Kyum with Heo found a strange enormous animal footprint. which they thought they should investigate some more. But Jing Yong and his men corralled them. He was about to execute them when out of nowhere a gargantuan animal came bouncing in, ravaging anyone it got near to.
Myung and Hur fell into the cliff. Yun Kyum and Sung Han went to look for them. They found the two in the lair of the monster.
Strangely there was a random old man in the lair and told them to douche themselves with the sticky liquid from a small puddle. Apparently, the smell from the liquid prevents the sight-challenged monsters from being aware of them. He can’t see them but it has a keen hearing.
The monster had just had its fill of a cannibalistic dinner when it fell asleep.
They each tried to get into a cave but the monster woke up.
They run farther into the cave but the monster followed agilely. They ended up falling into a ravine and straight into a canal leading to the palace.
Not one of them knew of this underground part of the palace. But the random old man did. He was one of the engineers of the underground animal laboratory. Apparently, the previous emperor has a hobby of collecting the fiercest, strangest animals that could be found around the world. He then encouraged procreation to create the fiercest most dangerous yet.
When the emperor died, the Prime Minister found out about the laboratory and had the animals killed except for the cute and cuddly looking black dog that the old man led to the gateway into the mountains.
It seems the animal grew so huge and ferocious.
While the four and the old man were trying to terminate the monster, the Prime Minister and General Jung Yong were staging a coup to overthrow King Jingjong.
At the last minute, the monster appeared much to the surprise of the Prime Minister who admitted that he made up the whole monster thing.
Yun Kyung managed to get the king to safety by asking guards who were still faithful to the king to guard him.
From this time on, the monster was almost unstoppable. Until all the palace archers and men with hooks worked together to stop the monster. They were able to stop it for a while but the Prime Minister ordered not to kill it as he will use it for the press release and parade it in the village for the people to see.
He spoke too soon because the monster found renewed vigor and got away from its shackles. It did it worse and fatally injured the nasty Prime Minister.
Meanwhile, Yun Kyum had an idea of bringing the monster back into the animal lab and blow it to pieces. So he tasked Sung Han and Hur to find explosives and bring them to the lab.
He then tried to make the monster to follow him into the lab.
What he did not know was that it was rather chaotic in the lab as General Jin Yong was trying to halt Sung Han and Hur from strategically arranging the explosives.
Thank goodness Myung appeared and with her prowess in archery got General Jin Yong in the chest saving Hur,.
Finally, the monster was in the lab and they lit the wicks of the explosive but they had gone off when the monster stumped on them.
Yun Kyum ushered the three out and locked himself in the lab to blow the explosives himself. Sung Han was sorrowful and Myung was absolutely devastated by her father’s suicide mission.
They saw the huge explosion and they were grieving.
As soon as it was safe to get back into the lab among the debris, Myung went to look for her father. She was resigned that he died but she saw a rope leading to a hole into the floorboards. She went to see it with the help of the villagers who came with them. There under the floorboards, Yun Kyum was unconscious but the excited scream of Myung woke him up.
The King moved out of the palace for three years to ensure that the monster was truly gone.
Three years later, Yun Kyum retired from the army and was going back with Sung Han to their cabin in the mountain leaving Myung to Hur in the capital.
He was rather sad to leave his daughter behind.
Hung San, strangely only now asked how Yun Kyum got away from the monster. Yun Kyum said that it was through simple engineering using the already in place ropes in pulleys.
The film is a bit predictable but having said that it was enjoyable to watch because the action was in good cadence. Once the monster appeared which was fairly early on, the thrill was there in spade, all the way through.
The cast is a good selection of leading actors, Hyeri was so pretty with her minimal make-up and good acting as well.
I also love the title because the animal is actually created as a monster through human manipulation of its DNA. The real monsters are the people. who would massacre a whole village without much thought? That is monstrous.