646f9e108c Jeon Woo-chi, an undisciplined womanizing Taoist from the Joseon era, ends up in present day Korea causing mayhem with his knack for magic. + A good mix between classic Wu-Xiapian movies and time-travel humor. It never fails to deliver laughs or to impress with witty action. Scrolls, seals, ideograms and magic tricks dispensed by the terrific cast are used to serve both the action and the comic relief. No flashy CGI it&#39;s cool and discrete. (The audience burst in laughs when they did the old school &#39;white smoke&#39; metamorphosis trick.)<br/><br/><ul><li>The film lacks a good editing though (a recurrent handicap in Korean movies). Despite the great acting of the cast, it tends to slow down when trying to develop the very secondary female characters. This is probably due to the presence of many Korean movie stars who always insist to get a lot of screen time for their characters even if that doesn&#39;t serve the storyline.</li></ul><br/><br/>I&#39;ll give it a 8 because of all the good laughs and this very refreshing and magical atmosphere the movie provides. While Korea&#39;s grown famous for pushing to export crappy CGI movies out of sheer patriotism but this isn&#39;t one of them. Woochi actually delivers. Combining fantasy, adventure, action and humour to maximum effect, this lively Korean film deserves to be seen bybig an audiencepossible. Writer/director Dong-hun Choi, best-known for his excellent con-artist films THE BIG SWINDLE (2004) and TAZZA : THE HIGH ROLLERS (2006), takes an unexpected turn into fantasy/action territory, but again shows why he is such a highly-regarded film-maker. Using the time-travel premise that was well-used in films suchICEMAN COMETH (from Hong Kong) and of course HIGHLANDER, WOO-CHI makes the most of the material, helped along by a strong cast and superior technical crew. Dong-won Kang (from SECRET REUNION, DUELIST, VOICE OF A MURDERER, and the very funny TOO BEAUTIFUL TOO LIE)is excellentthe title character, making a flawed, at-times quite vein person likable. The great Yun-seok Kim, who impressed audiences in RUNNING TURTLE and inparticular in the brilliant THE CHASER, is perfectly castWoo-chi&#39;s main nemesis. Su-jeong Lim (from Park Chan-wook&#39;s under-rated I&#39;M A CYBORG, BUT THAT&#39;S OK and the outstanding A TALE OF TWO SISTERS)is perfectthe object of Woo-chi&#39;s affections. It&#39;s also great to see Dong-hun regular Yun-shik Baek (TAZZA / THE BIG SWINDLE / THE ART OF FIGHTING / SAVE THE GREEN PLANET) make a very welcome appearance. With $200 million Hollywood productions failing to make the grade, it is wonderful to see a film like WOO-CHI deliver such high-class entertainment on a fraction of the budget. Fast-paced, exciting, very funny, and full of vibrant, involving characters, JEON WOO-CHI : THE TAOIST WIZARD will certainly be one of my best films of the year. One hopes it will get a proper international release (unfortunately the director&#39;s other films have yet to achieve a deserving release outside of South Korea).
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