Revelations

I have been a huge fan of foreign films since the early 90´s and i can still remember the very first time i watched the Indian drama film Salaam Bombay! on VHS in 1990. This film really emotionally touched me of the story of the homeless child Krishna ( played brilliant by child actor Shafiq Syed ) who tries to survive in the city of Bombay among criminals and drug addicts. There are several very powerful scenes in this film and i feel this is one of those classics you should see. Then we have other classics from countries such as South Korea and they have made plenty of quality films for many years. One of the titles from South Korea i feel doesn´t get mentioned often anymore is the 2000 South Korea mystery thriller known as Joint Security Area directed Park Chan-wook a true legend who directed classics such as Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Oldboy and Lady Vengeance. All three films are included in the so called Vengeance trilogy from director Park Chan-wook. Joint Security Area was actually released before this trilogy and this was my introduction to this beloved director. The first time i watched this film was on a Swedish DVD release from the distribution company Atlantic Film, which is a 2 DVD disc release. Joint Security Are tells the story of an investigation regarding a shooting incident involving two North Korea soldiers in the Korean Demilitarized Zone ( DMZ ) in the Joint Security Area at a North Korea border house. A very well made film with powerful acting performances and i have to say a very interesting plot. Definetely worth a watch on physical media and Arrow Video released a great blu ray release of this film filled with special features. Let´s stay with films from South Korea and how many of you watched the very effective zombie horror film Train To Busan back in 2016? The director of this wonderful film Yeon Sang-ho released his latest film Revelations on Netflix this spring so of course i had to check this out ( considering how much i enjoy Train To Busan ). Is this anotherr high quality film from director Yeon Sang-ho or is this not as good as i was hoping it would be?

Pastor Sung Min-can ( Ryu Jun-yeol ) leads a small congration and tries to welcome everyone from society without judging anyone. One day he is visitd by an unknown man he have never seen before known as Kwon Yang-rae ( Shin Min-jae ). He welcome him for a cup of coffee and offer to write him in as a new member of the church. Pastor Sung get a phone call and leave for a short while. As he return back to the room Kwon Yang-rae is about to leave. Pastor Sun notice that he have a foot shackle, not knowing what crime he have comitted. When Pastor Sun get a phone call from his wife that their daughter is missing he immediately think of the new visitor. Does he know anything about his daughter?

You may have noticed over the years that it´s not often i watch many Swedish films because they are mostly not good, or they don´t have powerful acting performances. I feel that a lot of Swedish directors should learn how to construct a high quality film by watching this Netflix film Revelations. There are several details i appreciate with this film and let´s begin talking about some of the details that makes this a strong film experience. I have to say the characters in this film are very strong, especially the character known as Pastor Sung Min-chan ( played really good by actor Ryu Jun-yeol ). What i find so interesting about this character is that he have so many things to deal with. His wife is cheating with him plus his daughter is vanished. She is eventually found but an accident happens within this timeline that will change the life of Pastor Sung Min-chan forever. Ryu Jun-yeol plays this character very emotional who is clearly struggling inside himself, while he tries to keep the positive Christian Pastor image alive for his congregation members. Knowing that he have comitted sin and he should tell the truth, instead he tries to hide the truth while there is another young girl missing. We also have the story of Detective Lee Yeon-hee ( great performance from actress Shin Huyn-been ) who is consumed by guilt ever since her sister killed herslef after she was kidnapped by a sadistic sex offender. Revelations have different stories to tell that connect along the way, there is a reason to why these stories are connected especially in biblical terms. I wouldn´t say that this film does anyhing original but what it manage to do is show us how vulnerable we can be in life, when we are forced to face consequences that may change our lives completely. Director Yeon Sang-ho clearly felt inspired by classic thrillers while making Revelations and he manage to craft this film with his own personal touch. It looks great, deliver strong diaogue and the psychological perspective from different angles of humans dealing with personal crisis hits the right spot. Not the best film from director Yeon Sang-ho but definetely one of the better thrillers i have seen this year. Revelations say a lot about human guilt and you should definetely watch it on Netflix.

Rating: DDDD