‘GyeongSeong Creature’ Netflix Series Review - Strange Thing

Both Rebel Moon Part 1 and GyeongSeong Creature Part 1 were released on the same day on Netflix. Watch one after the other, and you will experience déjà vu. For instance, rebels are present in both stories, though the ones present in the South Korean series make fatal decisions or lose their spine during the most critical time. The soldiers torment civilians, a group of people work together to defeat the oppressors, and the slow motion technique is also present in both productions. The last technical thing turns out to be more effective here than in the Zack Snyder film. In GyeongSeong Creature, the speed ramping makes the action look more pleasing (it creates terrifying results when a monster jumps towards the camera). It infuses magic in love at first sight and gives Yoon Chae-ok's (Han So-hee) physical moves an exciting quality. She appears like a superhero (Wonder Woman?) when she slides on the floor, picks up a gun, and shoots her enemies.

Most of Chae-ok's action scenes provide energy to this series. The way she follows a man by running and jumping on the roof is impressive and exhilarating. Her body looks elegant; her confidence is almost hypnotizing. No wonder Jang Tae-sang (Park Seo-joon) finds her intimidating. He starts fumbling for words when she casually asks him if he has feelings for her. Tae-sang is referred to as the information king. The tag is pretty self-explanatory. Chae-ok, though, calls him a trash king or something. Anyway, in the world of GyeongSeong Creature, one merely needs to know that every missing person is at Ongseong Hospital. This one fact is enough to make you an information king. This means the audience turns out to be smarter and more knowledgeable than Tae-sang. A mother searches for her son, who is unsurprisingly revealed to be present at the hospital. A daughter looks for her mother, who is revealed to be present at, yes, the hospital.

I didn't use "unsurprisingly" in the last sentence because the revelation is presented beautifully. At the beginning of the second episode, we learn about a painter's history, and then the series briefly shifts the perspective and hits us with the reveal. It's a wonderful moment that makes you wonder what other gifts are in store for the audience. Unfortunately, GyeongSeong Creature becomes utterly tedious and disappointing once the action is completely transferred to the hospital. You think a situation where the characters are trapped in a limited space with a monster would prove to be nail-biting. That the series would exploit the circumstances to generate tense horror sequences. Well, nothing of this sort ever happens in GyeongSeong Creature. Even in the presence of a brutal creature, the scenes fail to put you on edge. Everything feels flabby and unsatisfactory.

What's worse is that the series adopts a melodramatic tone in a desperate attempt to make us care for the characters. The teary goodbyes, the sentimental conversations, are draggy. Tae-sang gets a nice arc where he changes from a selfish businessman to a selfless hero, but the other characters fail to suck you into the narrative. The camera even shamelessly uses the weary faces of the children for cheap emotional manipulation. Once you get disconnected from the events, you start asking questions like, "Why is the monster not using its tentacles in Tae-sang's presence?." "How is it possible that all those bullets don't even touch a chained Chae-ok?" and "How many episodes are left?"

The story has a "ticking time" element, but it doesn't add any sense of urgency. Due to all those long, uninteresting hours, you reach the humans-are-worse-than-the-actual-monster conclusion before the series itself. The bad guys, too, are your usual stick figures. They make laughable, "menacing" faces. The mad scientist and the mad lieutenant evoke yawns, not terror. The difference between them and the creature is that the former has killer instincts, while the latter has maternal senses. One side merely fires bullets, while the other shields someone from gunfire. It might all sound interesting on paper, but on the screen, it gives rise to tedium. A second part is scheduled to release on January 5, 2024, though I am not that person who's eagerly waiting for the remaining episodes.

Final Score- [5/10]
Reviewed by - Vikas Yadav
Follow @vikasonorous on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times