Review of Chaw

Chaw (2009)
4/10
Disappointing towards the end
18 October 2020
Starts well, some good funny characters introduced. Boar fear without it being seen much, works well in 1st half.

Then, having seen so many movies on lion hunt, tiger hunt, shark hunt movies, this movie's use of that pattern is hard to miss: monster attacks in a mass festival, that was allowed by an authority overriding warnings, a team of pro hunters is hired, they kill one & celebrate, but the real killer monster strikes, some retired legendary hunter takes on himself to finish the job, some traps don't work, some gunners fail to shoot in nervousness, characters tell each other their life stories around a gathering before the final showdown, etc.

So many of these ideas was used, with some humour definitely and some poor execution. Boar's unconvincing and clearly artificial look & movement was hard to reconcile with. Not enough fear/caution/naturalness towards the end seen in the hunters who enter the boar's territory, plus cliched poor decisions like not shooting, running slow with many pauses while being chased, easily escaping the boar who has trapped him a meter away.

Disgusting show of eating: a pig-head, a live fish in boiling water, bugs/larvae, bats. May be part of Korean culture but was horrible to watch. Boar's killing/killed scenes needed blood and body parts and that was fitting.

A 4-5/10 rating would be fair, +1 for the final chase on a rail line, -1 for the disgusting food shown.
2 out of 2 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

Recently Viewed