Once it gets going, WOOCHI is a romping
fun-packed fantasy adventure that successfully blends comedy and romance with
martial arts and impressive special effects. Kang Dong Won is a charismatic, if
deliberately self-absorbed lead, Kim Yun Seok is suitably villainous and Lim Su
Jeong is gorgeous in a dual role that sadly asks little of her than to scrub up
well come the final act. Yu Hae Jin pretty much steals the show, however, as
the faithful dog, sticking by his master in the hope Woochi will one day be competent
enough to make him a real human, and providing plenty of comic relief along the
way.
Where WOOCHI fails, however, is in it's
unnecessarily lengthy and exposition-heavy opening. The film's first 45 minutes
is a densely packed melée of frankly unnecessary information that not only
proves confusing but may deter less committed viewers from sticking with the
film and subsequently missing out on the entertainment that eventually follows.
These script based issues come as a surprise as writer-director Choi Dong Hoon
has proved in the past with films such as THE BIG SWINDLE and THE PRESIDENT'S
LAST BANG that tightly written, densely plotted thrillers are something of a
forte. The computer generated goblins - who take the form of a variety of
large domestic rodents cross-bred with THE DARK CRYSTAL's skekses - are
also sadly underused. The result is very much a film of two halves, but
has a second half that is good enough to compensate for the head scratching
confusion that precedes it.
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Just for balance, I'll point out that I found the first 45 minutes to be fun, very funny, perhaps a bit uber-expositional but interesting--as story. I could barely finish the film once the predictable, un-interesting, and redundant fight scenes took over and the secondary characters fought for thinly developed screen time. The film has a good sense of humor throughout, and some of the choreography is good, but I thought the film lost forward moving focus the longer it went on, to the point that it wasn't a narrative any more, just a series of setups to show more roll-your-eyes-here-comes-another-fight-scene boringness.
Just saw this film recently, and have to agree that the beginning was a bit confusing and long, but once into the movie, i found it quite funny at times.
i loved the Woochi character more than the his dog/horse.