"Chaw" Movie Review (2010)

"Chaw"

Movie Review

By our guest blogger, Aidan Thomas

"Chaw," the South-Korean import by Director Jeong-Won Shin, is as ambitious as it is sloppy.

Shin’s film, about a giant boar that ravages a town, had so much campy potential. I mean, who doesn’t want to see a film where people are killed by something or someone that they helped to create (and a giant boar to boot)?

It’s an age-old formula for an entertaining film. However, Shin seems to have spread himself and his story too thin. The film attempted a lot but didn't achieve much of anything. In the first 15 minutes, we are presented with animal rights documentary footage, a typical horror movie opening sequence, a critique of capitalistic pursuit, and an introduction of police incompetence. Each of these subjects is worthy of a film but Shin struggles to tie them altogether in the film.

The film is also downright silly. Silliness has become an endearing quality in recent South Korean films ("The Host" is the perfect example). However, the characters in "Chaw" are not well developed or likeable enough to make the sillyness endearing. It also undermined the fairly serious undertones that the film tries to explore.

That’s not to say there aren’t a few likeable aspects of the movie. The relationship between the two hunters that are called upon to kill the boar is fairly well developed and smart (albeit a tad clichéd). There also are a few pretty awesome boar rampage sequences. But it wasn't enough to tie the film together. In the end, it seemed as if Shin overreached. In trying to do and say too much, the film doesn’t say much at all.


Grade: C-