This is a movie that may offend a lot of viewers, but I could understand where the director is coming from to a certain degree. Yeon Sang-ho seems to take certain negative aspects about real life and sort of blows it out of proportion. And gives a really tormenting and bleak perspective on these negative real life situations. His first film was about school bullying. And this one is about a cynical religious con to trick the villagers out of there money, with the promise of them going to heaven. And it's up to a very very dislikable main character to try and prove that the villagers are being tricked. It's good to root for the cause of showing the truth to the villagers. But the main character is almost as dislikable as the people who are in on the con. The plot revolves around manipulation, trickery and cynical elements. The movie can be appalling at times, like how the characters get tricked into such nonsense that has "you are being conned" all over it. But again this is something that actually happens in real life. The message I think was to show how even something positive can be twisted into something very horrible. However, I just didn't find this movie intense or hits the core and just goes in a bleak, somewhat nihilistic and depressing direction with it all. I could tell where the director was trying to go, but the execution was just poorly contructed. None of the characters are likable at all in this film. With characters being either malicious, brutish and cynical to being way too dumb and submissive. Overall, this just came off as a depressing movie that has more weakness than strengths.
6.5/10
