Blood Rain - Thrilling Revenge in 19th c Korea

Blood Rain is a crime movie, transposed to early 19th century Korea, that follows in the tradition of the modern thrillers, like Seven, in plot and execution. While there are moments of extreme violence, it is a well plotted mystery. It takes place in a village on a small island that has a paper mill -- its only source of production and income, and famed for its high quality paper. They make tributes twice a year, and because their product is in demand the village is a thriving community. The movie opens with what seems like a standard horror scene -- a woman is floating underwater, drowned, with a brief flashback to the moments before her death -- being chased through the woods by several men, before coming to a stop at the edge of a cliff, and falling into the water below.

The movie then begins proper with a loading of a ship with paper -- a man carrying one of the boxes slips and falls into the water, upsetting but not damaging a box. He is reprimanded. Later, a village ceremony that turns sour when the priestess is suddenly possessed by Kang, who, along with his family, was brutally executed seven years before for practicing Catholicism. He claims that the time for vengeance is near, and that those involved will suffer the same fate as his family, and that the village will rain in his blood as a result of his curse. The ship with the paper is set on fire, and it causes great stress because it contains the biannual tribute to the government. Shortly thereafter, people start dying, as per the curse. A man is impaled, and another is suffocated. Won-gyu (played by Cha Seung-won), a government official, is sent to investigate. He links the victims as informers who helped convict Kang, who was the original owner of the mill. Following the trail of who would benefit from his death, Won-gyu uncovers a seedy past amongst some of the villagers, and discovers that his own father had a role in the man's death. As the body count rises, the villagers become increasingly agitated, and Won-gyu is pressured into finding the killer. He discovers that the daughter of the mill owner had not been executed, someone else had taken her place. She received the attentions of a local official, who was distraught when the others discovered that she was still alive, and killed her on the edge of the cliff. Won-gyu realizes that the paper mill itself is a target, as well as the remaining informer. He saves them both in an exciting climatic scene at the paper mill, where he confronts the local official, and kill him. However, the villagers, wanting to end the curse, execute the informer as he is being lead to custody by Won-gyu. The clouds darken and it indeeds rain blood, causing many of the villagers to panic, kill themselves, or flee. The film ends with Won-gyu returning to the mainland, burying the last bit of evidence by dropping it into the ocean.

An intense thriller, Blood Rain's unique take lies in the historical setting. It is beautifully shot, and while the entire story takes place in a single village on an isolated island, you get the feel of a unique culture and community that is centered on paper production. We may have seen the investigation part done many times in other films, but it is still compelling, because of the strong cast and intelligent plot. Again, I do compare it to Seven because of the violence -- the flashback to Kang's public execution by drawn and quartering is brutal and hard to watch. One curious note -- in the Korean film review site, the reviewer notes of the chickens that are killed towards the end of the film, as a means to ward off the vengeful demon, and it is indeed unexpected and unnecessarily graphic. But it is an odd moment in a very good movie. Recommended.