POSSESSED

From Hong-Kong comes the response to Friedkin's "The Exorcist". Or rather, let's immediately say that Chung's film takes up the themes of its illustrious predecessor and mixes them in a "baroque" way with a story of suffering love. In fact, without a shadow of a doubt, it is the sacred fire of love that rises to the main theme of the film. It seems to admire a soft, diffused light as much as the "neon" style of Chung's direction (a character with more than 40 films to his credit!!!). And the fear? Let's start with a premise. Chung's film highlights the strong dichotomy that can arise in certain cases between "form" and "substance", that is: the direction with accelerations and slow-motions, virtuosity, pauses, works very well, the almost metallic colors in contrast with the red of the blood and the "pastels" of the clothes are spot on and the use of the "demonic voice" effect along with some special effects (artisanal, surely, and sometimes almost hilarious but still effective) guarantee some chills and an enjoyable viewing, on the other hand we are faced with a somewhat confused story, indebted in many points to the "western" tradition (so much so that even the priest is a fervent Catholic) that seems to take off from one moment to the next but ends up getting lost in a strange sensation of "déjà-vu" and above all risks slipping into the abyss of confusion. There is a priest who became such following the death of his wife in a road accident, there are cases of possession, there are the two curious lovers, talk-show hosts who investigate these paranormal phenomena, there is everything, there is nothing. A round of applause for the beautiful music and the actors who manage to make credible what they put on stage. Not excellent but still guarantees an enjoyable hour and a half. One scene deserves the palm of the film's "climax" moment: watch out for the blood explosion in the bathroom.