Monday, July 15, 2024

Project Silence

So, I knew that the MBTA would be running shuttle buses instead of the Red Line starting this weekend, but seeing that Magoun Square station was closed was a rude surprise. My phone said to go with a regular bus and the Orange Line, but a shuttle arrived first, so I took it, and, man, was that a bad idea. I arrived late enough for this movie that I used up the whole 20-minute AMC trailer buffer and the ticket that printed out at the kiosk said "too late" because the bus replacing my train was stuck in traffic. Within ten minutes of sitting down, there was a massive crash, and, man, how do drivers live like this?


Talchul: Project Silence

* * ½ (out of four)
Seen 13 July 2024 in AMC Causeway Street #5 (first-run, laser DCP)

It's a peculiar artifact of how the release-window incentives align in different countries that if you want to see a movie like Project Silence on the big screen - something kind undemanding that gets you into air-conditioning for a while and isn't the big tentpole you've already seen or are making plans to see with somebody else - it's often the case that your best choice is Chinese, Indian, or Korean. The American version of this goes straight to whatever streaming service bought it, or maybe gets a few late-night showtimes if that's Shudder and IFC Midnight opens it on the right week, but this opens in North America the same day as South Korea because it's targeting a specialty audience.

The action takes place on a bridge near Seoul's Incheon airport. Blue House security advisor Cha Jeon-won (Lee Sun-kyun) is taking daughter Kyung-min (Kim Su-an) there so she can go to school overseas, although the brusque widower stiffs a gas station because he doesn't think tow truck driver Joe Park (Ju Ji-hoon) actually works there. Coming the other direction are golfer Sim Yura (Park Ju-hyun) and her sister Miran (Park Hee-von), who have missed their flight to America and Yura's first overseas tournament because Miran, also Yura's manager, has allowed Yura's passport to lapse; they meet older couple Byung-hak (Moon Sung-keun) and Soon-ok (Ye Soo-jung), returning from a trip to Vietnam that the latter likely won't remember. It's a very foggy night, and a joyriding streamer causes a massive accident, which doesn't just trap them on the bridge, but also a small military convoy that includes a truck full of dogs bred and given cranial implants to ruthlessly hunt people down by the sounds of their voices, along with Dr. Yang (Kim Hee-won), the nebbishy head of the project. The dogs, of course, escape, and the plan to draw them back to the vehicle by designating one of the soldiers as a target is not exactly brilliant.

This is a fairly dumb "genetically enhanced killer animal" thing, but it's got the good taste to be honestly dumb rather than winking at the audience like it's clever, at least 90% of the time. It hits a lot of expected beats and where it doesn't, it's because the filmmakers have a mean streak that's not really horror-movie fun (really, who wants to choose between shooting dogs and a senile old lady getting maimed?) rather than because it hits the audience with a twist of joke that undercuts what they've been enjoying. Where it works, it's because everyone seems committed, from Dr. Yang telling the story of the dogs' origins to contriving a situation where Yura must call upon her golf skills to get them out of trouble. The movie is being ridiculous but staring you right in the face earnestly enough to make it convincing.

Part of that, perhaps my favorite part, is the way that CGI dogs are built; they're big, black, and mean (at first glance, one thinks they may be giants), but are kind of pug-ish in the face. Indeed, they look maybe one notch too human, enough to give them an unusual amount of expression but not quite enough to look like cartoons or alien creatures, or make them too sympathetic It's just good enough to skirt the edge of the uncanny valley, and allows for some decent, if not quite great, action set-ups, just enough to let one acknowledge the fantasy but not enough to make it silly.

The downside to this approach of taking things seriously is that a film can easily wind up grim rather than just played straight, and that's what happens here. While few of these characters deserve to die, the film seldom offers someone to root for in a situation where they've got agency. The group never really jells as one that's really interesting to spend time with, and when they're split up but only a few really have something to do - mostly Lee Sun-kyun's Jung-won, who is the film's most abrasive character - you don't really miss the rest as they disappear. A film like this has to either have compelling subplots or problems to solve on top of the high concept, and Project Silence often stops at just the clever idea.

That said, it's not nearly as dreary as the other genre movie that opened this weekend, the highly-polished but utterly fun-free Longlegs; you can have some fun in it. I can't help but wonder how much more fun it would have been if we spent half as much time with the golfer and her dotty sister as with the guy with a security clearance.

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