[HanCinema's Film Review] "A Monstrous Corpse" + Full Movie

Seemingly a remake of the Spanish/Italian zombie flick of the 70s "Let Sleeping Corpses Lie", "A Monstrous Corpse" is one of the first S. Korean movies in the category, in an effort though, which is lacking significantly on a number of fronts.

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Kang Myeong, a Taiwanese man who is dressed much like a cowboy, stumbles upon Soo-ji, who has just returned from the US after 5 years and is driving around a forest area, searching for the villa where her sister, Hyun-ji is living with her husband. Kang, on the other hand, is travelling in the area for leisure purposes. The two of them eventually split up, with Kang soon stumbling upon a friend of his, who is part of a group of scientists who are experimenting with supersonic waves in the area, in an effort to find a way to kill mosquitoes without using pesticides. Soo-ji eventually finds the villa, but it turns out that Yong-dol, her brother-in-law, has been keeping her sister in the area against her will, and even worse, he is now missing. Soo-ji barely survives the attack of a man who appears mad, but eventually their search stumbles upon Yong-dol, who seems to have been dead. The police arrives soon, and Huyn-ji is accused for murder. A bit later, it is revealed that the supersonic waves actually make the dead turn into zombies, and soon, all hell breaks loose.

Gang Beom-gu directs a film that uses the zombie trope in order to make a comment about the consequences of man trying to "tame" nature, with the zombification of the dead functioning as the punishment. Apart from that, however, the narrative makes very little sense, since both the episodes and the characters are rather disconnected from the main story line. This aspect becomes even more intense, since the protagonist changes midway through the movie, and the Kojak-like police officer who was in charge of the interrogation becomes the person in focus, also getting a voice-over that seems completely out of place when compared to the style of the film up to that point.

At the same time, and as the initial protagonists meet the worst fate one could meet in a zombie movie, the whole mess of the narrative actually starts to become rather entertaining, in a nonsensical way that is very similar to similar Hong Kong productions. In that regard, the movie benefits the most by both Yang Yeong-kil's editing, who turns both the bucolic exteriors and the various interiors into truly hellish places, and Hyeon Dong-chun's editing, who implements a rather fast pace that does not allow the illogicality of the story to become particularly apparent, while suiting the action in the best fashion.

On the other hand, the lack of gore or any kind of intense action does not work at all for the genre of the movie, which ends up appearing too tame for its story and overall nature, even if the chases can be entertainingly agonizing on occasion.

Chiang Ming as the cocky Taiwanese, beautiful and aristocratic looking Yu Gwang-ok as Soo-ji steal the show in the beginning with their over the top acting, only to give their place to Park Am who plays the inspector through a combination of noir style and hyperbole that works well within the narrative.

"A Monstrous Corpse" is filled with faults, but in the end, emerges as a fun effort that will satisfy, to a point at least, fans of zombie movies.

Review by Panos Kotzathanasis

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"A Monstrous Corpse" is directed by Gang Beom-gu, and features Yu Gwang-ok, Chiang Ming, Park Am, Pauline Wong Yuk-Wan, Hong Yun-jeong, Kim Wang-guk. Release date in Korea: 1981/04/10.