Julien Neaves – Editor
Greetings folks. How’s everyone doing? Fair to fine with a chance of isolated showers? Well we’ve been dropping a lot of horror reviews of late, including Sommer’s fantastic job on her 31 Days of Horror series, but I wanted to mix things up a bit. And being thrown into the mix today is Netflix 2018 Koren superhero action film Psychokinesis. In the movie a slacker security guard named Mr Shin (Ryu Seong-ryung) gains the titular ability to move things with his mind. He uses said ability to protect his hot-tempered, estranged daughter Roo-mi (Shim Eun-kyung) and others from a ruthless corporation seeking to evict them from their businesses without compensation.
Over the years I have been getting more and more into Korean films and the industry continues to impress me. Surprise 2019 Best Picture winner Parasite was irrefutably a masterpiece, and one of my favourite horror films of all time is the iconic 2016 Train to Busan. Psychokinesis is director Yeon Sang-ho’s second live action film after Busan and, while it may not be on par with that cinematic work of art, it is a highly entertaining and well-made film.
The story at its heart is about a father trying to do right by the daughter he wronged, and two leads do a fantastic job in portraying that relationship. Ryu is also a riot as an unconventional superhero, and his wacky use of his powers makes up for a lot of the laughs. I found myself cackling throughout this film. I also enjoyed the comically over the top villains.
The film’s best aspect is in the action scenes. They are punchy, stylish, thrilling and action packed. There are moments where the CGI looks a bit dodgy but these are fleeting. The aesthetic reminded me of films like Akira and Chronicle but Yeon made it his own with the comedic tone and the heartstring pull of the father-daughter relationship.
So if you are in the mood for laughs and superhero thrills in equal measure, and maybe to shed a tear or two, then you should definitely put Psychokinesis on your Netflix to watch list.
Julien’s Score: 8 out of 10
For my review of Netflix German superhero film Freaks: You’re One of Us you can click here.
Julien “Jules” Neaves is a TARDIS-flying, Force-using Trekkie whose bedroom stories were by Freddy Krueger, learned to be a superhero from Marvel, but dreams of being Batman. I love promoting Caribbean film (Cariwood), creating board games and I am an aspiring author. I say things like “12 flavours of awesome sauce”.
I can also be found posting on Instagram as redmanwriter and talking about TV and movie stuff on Facebook at Movieville.