Sep 292006
 
3,5 reels

Demon Hunter Yi Gwak (Woo-sung Jung) saves a village from demons and is betrayed for his troubles. Drugged, he escapes to fall unconscious in the woods, awakening in Mid-heaven, the land the dead go to before passing on to Heaven and being reincarnated. But Yi Gwak isn’t dead, a fact that is some consternation to everyone. Previously, his wife, Yon-hwa (Tee-hee Kim) had been murdered by superstitious villagers for being a witch. Yi Gwak had gone on to join the empire’s elite demon hunting squad, lead by Ban-chu (Jun-ho Heo), who understood his pain having lost his own wife. All of the team except Yi Gwak then died when Ban-chu lead them against the corrupt nobles. The afterlife is supposed to be free of such strife, but instead the protectors of the realm are being wiped out by demons, lead by Ban-chu and supported by the old hunter gang. Yi Gwak is stuck opposing then when he finds his wife, the last surviving protector, but she is now an archangel renamed So-hwa who has had her memory erased. Her goal is to save Mid-heaven; Yi Gwak’s is to save her.

The Restless, a Korean sword-fantasy-romance also known as Demon Empire, is harsh for someone in mourning, like me. In part that is because it spoke to me. Yes, this is a film filled with flashing swords and magic, but action isn’t the point. Grief and the meaning of life is the focus and The Restless knows what it is doing with those.

Sure, if what you want is wire-fu, you’ll be happy. There’s a lot of leaping and slashing. Magic swords are the norm and the demons and their ilk fight with chains and an infinite supply of short throwing spears. It looks good, particularly the deaths as bodies dissolve like burning paper. The scenery is better. Apparently almost everything is computer generated and it is beautiful.

But there are plenty of Asian costume-fantasies with fancy fight choreography. The Restless stands out on theme. The world presented is shades of gray. Stereotypically good people are hard to find. Villagers are murderers. The government is filled with raping creeps and everyone is willing to kill those in their way. But there are also few purely bad guys. Those villagers were desperate, just trying to survive. The main villains, the demon hunters, are generally noble and desperately trying to put an end to corruption and suffering. And we really don’t know the situation with the rulers—our information on them is second and third hand. As for the gods and protectors, there’s some question if the entire system of the heavens isn’t a mess based on foolish philosophy. Is rebirth really a goal if it strips you of what you are? If you want to do the right thing in life, The Restless says give up on that—there is no right thing, and even if there were, you’d fail. The only thing worth clinging to is love, even if it makes you miserable. That’s a philosophy I can work with.

All that theme comes off best when it is originating from or directed at So-hwa. She is the definition of adorable, with anime features and doe eyes. She is also perpetually perplexed, which, of course, is the point. Without memories, she only has the unbending rules of Mid-heaven to guide her. But she’s just a student protector in way over her head, and while the enemy seems clear to her, the logic of those unbending rules is not.

Not everything comes off so well. Woo-sung Jung overplays the tortured swordsman and I really want to give him a comb to tame is 2000’s rock-star hair. Other reviews have praised the martial arts, but it was my least favorite element of the film. It’s too elongated. But that’s true of every aspect of the picture. Be it swinging a sword or gazing into another’s eyes, every shot is held a beat too long. If feels like a spaghetti western. I want to go in a pull every 10th frame. Still, beauty and theme win out over excessive pausing, making The Restless one of the best martial arts films of this century.