Byeonshin, internationally known as Metamorphosis, is a supernatural horror movie from South Korea. The movie starts with a scene where a priest tries an exorcism on a girl who is possessed by an evil spirit. The exorcism ends in a disaster and the reclusive priest thinks about moving abroad to take some distance from those horrible events. Around the same time, his brother's family moves to a new city. Even though the house looks amazing, the peace is quickly disturbed by a creepy neighbour who seems to be performing rituals with dead animals in the middle of the night. Even though the police starts investigating, they can't find any proofs for such rituals. Every single day, strange things start occurring in the neighbourhood and especially in the family. The mother has an emotional breakdown during breakfast. The father sneaks into his daughter's bedroom in the middle of the night but can't recall it the next day. As things slowly spiral out of control, the family asks the priest to intervene on his last day before moving abroad. The exorcist doesn't realize however that he has already been targeted by a menacing supernatural force as well.

This horror movie convinces with a steadily increasing gloomy atmosphere rather than with predictable jump scares. The acting performances add a lot to the atmosphere as one constantly tries to figure out who is acting normally and who might be possessed. The locations have been chosen with care and especially the opening exorcism, the neighbour's creepy house and the car accident scene will leave lasting impressions. The light and sound effects are employed with care rather than with exaggeration and complement the story appropriately.

In the end, Byeonshin or Metamorphosis, is a supernatural horror movie for those who have gotten sick of Hollywood's predictable sequels of jump-scare horror flicks. This movie goes back to the roots of classic horror cinema of the seventies as it values atmosphere over shock effects. This film doesn't include much gore but rather focuses on psychological horror elements. What we have here is a slow burn that starts with a bang and then slows down to gradually unfold its bleak vibes until a dramatic finale. This film doesn't quite rival some other excellent South Korean horror movies of recent memory such as The Wailing, Rampant and Train to Busan but it proves once again that South Korean cinema is currently the best in the world in my opinion.

Monstrum is a South Korean historical fiction movie that bears a resemblance to the excellent Rampant. The film takes place during the sixteenth century and follows two story lines that intertwine. One part of the movie focuses on a strange monster that brutally murders farmers and travelers in the country. The second part focuses on a political conspiracy that menaces King Jungjong.

This excellent movie convinces on numerous levels. The film is filled with brutal, gloomy and mysterious scenes that should equally please fans of action and horror movies. The locations have been chosen with care and bring the historical period back to life with poor villages, magnificent castles and isolated farms. The plot line is tense, dynamic and clever as the two stories intertwine progressively, fluidly and cleverly. The characters are particularly intriguing, especially the colourful lead characters who are investigating the sinister deaths. The entire movie leads to a dramatic finale culminating with explosive action scenes that will leave a lasting impression.

There are only two minor elements to criticize. First of all, the ending feels as if the scriptwriters had tried to pull a rabbit out of a hat. This breaks with the gloomy fanasty sequences and leads to a stereotypical happy ending. In addition to this, some important questions regarding the monster are left unanswered. Secondly, the film Rampant that was released at the same time has a very similar story line but is overall the slightly better movie because it's even more entertaining, intense and surprising. If you have watched and appreciated Monstrum, you must try out Rampant, too.

In the end, Monstrum is another excellent contemporary South Korean movie. This historical fantasy movie mixes a twisted political intrigue with a bloody monster hunt and leads to a spectacular finale. If you like this movie, you should definitely watch Rampant as well. Along with Train to Busan, these three films are among the very best horror and fantasy movies of the last decade as South Korean cinema has left Hollywood behind throughout the past two decades.

There are two ways to approach Mongolian military drama Marked Man, also known as The Warlord. If you compare this movie to similar productions from other countries, the lack of budget becomes quite obvious which leads to an absence of gripping action scenes and reduces this film to a documentary-styled drama with propagandistic tendancies. On the other side, it's also possible to analyze this movie as one of the few films to come out of Mongolia that manages to entertain and teach international viewers about the way the Second World War unfolded in that country.

This movie deals with the Battles of Khalkhin Gol between Mongolia and Japan that took place between May and September 1939. The story follows courageous private Dandar who becomes the commander of a horse battalion upon his superior's death. Even though the Japanese have better equipment, Dandar's heroic leadership manages to push back the enemy and leads to a surprising Mongolian victory which is followed by a ceasefire agreement. However, an investigator suspects that Dandar might have orchestrated his superior's death in order to become a commander and even accuses him to be a spy for the Japanese. Things get even more complicated when the Soviet Union gets involved as their ideological convictions clash with traditional Mongolian culture. Heroic commander Dandar becomes an outcast, is accused of treason in a fake trial and has to serve time in a prisoner-of-war camp with the very enemies he had defeated.

As you can see, the movie's plot is diversified, emotional and intriguing. The characters are authentic and charismatic. The locations have been chosen with care. Especially the final twenty minutes that take place after the battles provide much depth.

On the other side, the fight scenes in this film are static and repetitive. Some side characters and their intentions remain mysterious or superficial as only the main character is going through significant development. The movie misses the occasion to portray how the former commander gets along with the Japanese soldiers in the prisoner-of-war camp. The movie's biggest issue is the dreadful American English dubbing that is often out of rhythm and even missing entire lines. I would have prefered to watch this movie in Mongolian with English subtitles.

In the end, military drama Marked Man is of interest for those who care about Mongolian culture and history. Even in a globalized world, it's rare to find a Mongolian movie and even more difficult to find one that doesn't deal with Genghis Khan and his offspring. This movie tells us about an unknown part of the Second World War and the story is intriguing enough for me to pardon the film's cheap budget, dreadful dubbing and dated fight scenes. If you are looking for a great military film, you have to look elsewhere but if you want to watch a historical drama, you might actually appreciate this movie like I did.

Nervous Part 2: Versus Side Story is the second and final short film loosely based upon Japanese fantasy slasher Versus. This short film actually has a few more connections to the original film than the shorter and underdeveloped first strike. This short film takes place some time after the events portrayed in Versus. The two police officers, one gangster and the escapee have no recollection of their past and live in a sanitarium. They are closely observed by a concerned nurse and a much more distant doctor. The four men befriend one another since they don't really know who they are. However, things quickly spiral out of control when flashbacks are slowly creeping back into their minds. Those painful memories turn friends into enemies again.

This short film is more than twice as long as the first strike and has some more development. The dialogues are very similar to the original film. There certainly is some entertaining situation comedy that keeps the short film going. Towards the end, there are some humorous fight scenes as well. The ending is quite unexpected but fits the comic tone of this short film.

The short film's flaw is that it lacks diversity as it's based upon situation comedy for sixteen minutes. The ending is even somewhat childish and leaves the audience waiting for a more sinister turn in vain.

In the end, fans of the original fantasy slasher Versus can watch this short film without any regrets. It's similar in tone and style and features quirky dialogues and absurd situation comedy. On the other side, this film can rather be considered a gimmick for die-hard fans rather than an interesting work of fiction on its own. If you don't know Versus, then there is obviously no point whatsoever in watching this. On the other hand, this short film is completely independent from the other short film. Both of these short films can be found among the extras of the ultimate version of Versus that has recently been released on Blu-ray by Arrow Media.

Nervous Part 1: Versus Side Story is one of two short films related to Japanese fantasy slasher Versus. This first short film focuses on the two officers who are chasing two escapees in the original film. The quieter officer has a much more sinister side in this short film. He wants to conduct an interview with an eyewitness at the police station. However, the interview room is filled with bloody bodies who come back to life. The scared eyewitness soon understands that the police officer is responsible for those atrocities and that he is next on the list for a rather unusual reason.

This short film is only loosely associated to the original movie. It convinces with gloomy settings, strange dialogues and tense atmosphere. It's certainly entertaining from start to finish with its limited running time of about seven minutes.

On the negative side, the story itself is as thin as it gets. Furthermore, this short film's antagonist has a behaviour that was never evident in the original film which is slightly confusing. It's a good thing that the content of this short film was released separately and not interwoven into the original full length feature.

In the end, this short film is obviously only interesting for fans of the original full length feature Versus. It can be found among the extras of the ultimate version of the film on the recent Arrow Media Blu-ray release. This short film entertains decently and convinces with gloomy atmosphere but the story is rather shallow and unimportant.