Ghost Sweepers (aka Fortune Tellers) is a 2012 Korean film that's somewhat comparably themed in nature to the 1980's movie Ghostbusters.
SPOILERS AHEAD!
Your story involves a wealthy land owner rounding up 50 or so of Korea's top paranormal specialists to rid the supernatural problems plaguing her plans to develop a small seaside town. As one would expect from people working in this profession, many of the "experts" gathered together are little more than charlatans, phonies, etc, who are out to make a quick buck and/or further their reputation.
Everyone convenes at the site of the problem, where they quickly find they are overmatched by actual otherworldly powers that far exceed their b.s. abilities. As such, most of them high tail it out of town asap, leaving only a handful of people to deal with the problem. The 5 people that decide to remain do have some varying degree of special skills however, and include: a money hungry scheister looking to make a name for himself, a shaman that can see spirits with his mystic eye, an engineer that designs all types of ghost hunting equipment, a pretty fortune teller who can see the past, and, a young boy who can see the future.
The 5 remaining "ghost sweepers" are joined in their endeavor by a spunky reporter who's down on her luck. Together, they all set off to solve the mystery of what's going on in town. From there, it's a mish mash of varying back stories, unnecessary side plots, and so on, until the main ghostly story line finds its way to a conclusion. There's also a considerable amount of unnecessary filler that unfolds along the way regarding various familial/friendship/love relationships among the characters.
Each of the primary cast members are given a brief, albeit promising, intro that provides some insight into the characters they portray. Unfortunately, there's too little time spent on them (in favor of emphasizing an overly lengthy ghost story) to allow the viewer to better invest and care about any of these people over the long haul. Two of what could have been some of the more interesting characters (the pretty fortune teller and the young boy) are so underutilized that they were almost pointless in the overall scheme of things.
There is simply just too much going on here to make all of this effectively work in the context of a theatrical movie format. None of what is going on is complicated or confusing, but when you add up the father/son story, reporter/dad story, love interest stories, friendship/kinship stories, etc., well, it's a lot to digest & process all at once; and, I haven't even mentioned the primary story about the sunken Japanese treasure ship/ghost story angle, the village idiots who work at the behest of the ghostly presence, the unnecessary side plot involving some company that wants the reporter dead, etc. This film would have been far better served if it were turned into a KTV series, where the characters could be better fleshed out, and various story lines and relationships could be more fully developed over time, and where new ghostly occurrences could be solved every few weeks, etc. But, this is a 2 hour movie, so it is what it is!
This is an average movie at best. I suppose you can kill two hours watching it if you have nothing better to do on a rainy afternoon. Otherwise, this is a forgettable and underwhelming flick that can easily be skipped over.
Bottom Line: A very generous 6 out of 10 stars.
SPOILERS AHEAD!
Your story involves a wealthy land owner rounding up 50 or so of Korea's top paranormal specialists to rid the supernatural problems plaguing her plans to develop a small seaside town. As one would expect from people working in this profession, many of the "experts" gathered together are little more than charlatans, phonies, etc, who are out to make a quick buck and/or further their reputation.
Everyone convenes at the site of the problem, where they quickly find they are overmatched by actual otherworldly powers that far exceed their b.s. abilities. As such, most of them high tail it out of town asap, leaving only a handful of people to deal with the problem. The 5 people that decide to remain do have some varying degree of special skills however, and include: a money hungry scheister looking to make a name for himself, a shaman that can see spirits with his mystic eye, an engineer that designs all types of ghost hunting equipment, a pretty fortune teller who can see the past, and, a young boy who can see the future.
The 5 remaining "ghost sweepers" are joined in their endeavor by a spunky reporter who's down on her luck. Together, they all set off to solve the mystery of what's going on in town. From there, it's a mish mash of varying back stories, unnecessary side plots, and so on, until the main ghostly story line finds its way to a conclusion. There's also a considerable amount of unnecessary filler that unfolds along the way regarding various familial/friendship/love relationships among the characters.
Each of the primary cast members are given a brief, albeit promising, intro that provides some insight into the characters they portray. Unfortunately, there's too little time spent on them (in favor of emphasizing an overly lengthy ghost story) to allow the viewer to better invest and care about any of these people over the long haul. Two of what could have been some of the more interesting characters (the pretty fortune teller and the young boy) are so underutilized that they were almost pointless in the overall scheme of things.
There is simply just too much going on here to make all of this effectively work in the context of a theatrical movie format. None of what is going on is complicated or confusing, but when you add up the father/son story, reporter/dad story, love interest stories, friendship/kinship stories, etc., well, it's a lot to digest & process all at once; and, I haven't even mentioned the primary story about the sunken Japanese treasure ship/ghost story angle, the village idiots who work at the behest of the ghostly presence, the unnecessary side plot involving some company that wants the reporter dead, etc. This film would have been far better served if it were turned into a KTV series, where the characters could be better fleshed out, and various story lines and relationships could be more fully developed over time, and where new ghostly occurrences could be solved every few weeks, etc. But, this is a 2 hour movie, so it is what it is!
This is an average movie at best. I suppose you can kill two hours watching it if you have nothing better to do on a rainy afternoon. Otherwise, this is a forgettable and underwhelming flick that can easily be skipped over.
Bottom Line: A very generous 6 out of 10 stars.
