A real-fake shaman and his assistant face off against the past, and some real life spirits, in Kim Seong-sik’s directorial debut.
Cheon (gang Dong-won) and his assistant In-bae (Lee Dong-hwi) are two con artists, who use basic special effects to trick customers into thinking they are professional demon exorcists. Cheon, however, does come from a line of shamans and carries a mysterious exorcising sword, which has been used to seal away evil spirits for centuries. When Yoo-kyung (Esom), a young woman with the ability to see actual ghosts, arrives, promising them a small fortune to free her sister from a spirit’s control, the pair find themselves facing off against the evil wizard Beom-cheon (Huh Joon-ho) desperate to escape his confinement.
It’s refreshing to see something more or less new like Dr Cheon and the Lost Talisman. While it is based on a webtoon called Possessed, it doesn’t have too much in common with it, and feels like its own property. In a market oversaturated with sequels and licensed productions, any big budget blockbuster that isn’t based off a million-dollar property is a breath of fresh air. That said, there are many times when the movie feels exactly like one of those properties, and the staleness can be palpable.
Dr Cheon is a very fun movie, but for all its entertainment value I couldn’t help but think that it all felt a bit safe. There weren’t any particularly new elements in this film that we hadn’t already seen before, and so a lot of the enjoyment of the film comes from the way it deals with its tropes and clichés. The chemistry between Gang’s Cheon and Lee’s In-bae is great and carries a good chunk of the film. The addition of Hwang completes the trio nicely, and Esom’s distressed Yoo-kyung balances everything out nicely. Without its excellent cast, the film probably would have fallen pretty flat.
This is most evident in the movie’s weakest point: its villain. Huh Joon-ho plays the part fine but there’s not a lot to the character other than this furious sorcerer who spends most of the movie sitting down and just possessing people. It’s not a role that allows for much dynamism, and this carries over to his henchmen, who are lifeless, kind of boring individuals without Beom-cheon’s magic powering them up.
When they are powered up, it makes for some pretty good fight scenes, but where the movie shines is in its atmosphere. Watching Cheon and his friends fight off super-strong henchmen is fine, but it’s the scenes where he and Yoo-kyung are in the fog-covered village, hiding from the townsfolk that make the film really memorable. In fact, evertything to do with that village is fantastic, and really helps set the gloomier, darker mood in a film that is, by and large, very silly and funny.
Director Kim Seong-sik’s visual flair means that, with a fresh villain and story, the Dr Cheon brand could go far. He lays the foundations for what could be a very good franchise, reminiscent of Detective Dee or the (completely separate and not at all similar) Detective K series. Now that the introductions are all over and done with, and the crew is assembled, I can see a lot being done with the concept. Only time will tell if Dr Cheon is a franchise worth pursuing, but for now I’m keen to see where things go.
Verdict: Dr Cheon and the Lost Talisman’s so-so fantasy story is bolstered thanks to charismatic stars, good gags and some excellent visual scene-setting.
Overall entertainment: 7.5/10
Violence: 3/10
Sex: 0/10
Sword: Really does most of the work huh
Korean title: So much better
Casting: That’s Blackpink’s Jisoo as the celestial being, for whatever reason
Highly specific gags: the couple at the start are the same ones who originally hid in the basement in Parasite, on which Kim Seong-sik worked as AD. It’s nice to see they’ve gone up in the world.
Dr Cheon and the Lost Talisman (2023)
Also known as: 천박사 퇴마 연구소: 설경의 비밀(Chun Doctor’s Exorcism Lab: The Secret of Snow Scenery)
Korean
Director: Kim Seong-sik
Writer: Kim Seong-sik
CAST
Gang Dong-won – Dr. Cheon
Huh Joon-ho – Beom-cheon
Esom – Yoo-kyung
Lee Dong-hwi – In-bae
Kim Jong-soo – Hwang
Park So-yi – Yoo-min
Park Jeong-min – Shaman
The Asian Cinema Critic 