-Written by Marty Coney.
Korean cinema has been in a major boom over the past few years with some fantastic movies and tv series. Most people in the West will be familiar with the series that always reach the top spots on Netflix. Whether it be horror, or fantasy, or action, it's always entertaining and leaves you wanting more from the studios behind the projects.
Project Silence is another movie that will keep you hooked and entertained throughout. Written and directed by Tae-Gon Kim, Project Silence follows a group of strangers who are trapped on a bridge after a major car collision causes a secret government project to escape and kill everything in its path.
Project Silence is a government program that enhances dogs and makes them killers. The dogs are fitted with a microchip and when they hear the voice of the target they are sent to kill with ruthless efficiency.
On a night that is thick with fog, government official and recent widower Jung-Won (Lee Sun-Kyun) is taking his daughter Kyeong-Min (Kim Su-An) to the airport so she can study overseas. When they get on the bridge a maniac driver causes a crash that involves dozens of cars and the trailer containing the dogs is damaged releasing them to an unsuspecting group of terrified people.
With the dogs wreaking havoc on the foggy bridge, a small band of people stick together to fend them off and survive until the government forces arrive to rescue them. Project Silence goes from an action-horror movie to a disaster-survival movie as a helicopter who was arriving to round up the dogs crashes into the bridge causing the suspension wires to buckle and covering a large portion of the bridge in fire. Now the group has to worry about the bridge crashing into the sea below as well as the dogs trying to kill them.
None of the characters are as likeable as you would hope in a movie where people are getting eaten alive by dogs. They all bicker and fight constantly and are very selfish--apart from an old couple who are very affectionate with everyone, even the dogs. As a dog owner myself I found myself hoping the dogs would be okay; nobody likes to see animals get hurt during films. A quote you hear quite often is “I don't care who dies, as long as the dog lives.” The film goes on to tell us why the dogs are out for blood which makes you sympathise with them even more.
I had a good time with Project Silence despite the dogs getting hurt (they are CGI, which makes it a bit easier) and the use of fog hides a lot of the shortcomings with the CGI, but it also makes it hard to see a lot of what is happening unless the camera gets up close, and it's all happening at night, too, which makes it even harder to see. The special effects of the helicopter crashing and the slow destruction of the bridge are well done which probably took a good bit of the budget to look good, so a bit of wonky CGI is okay I guess.
Directed by: Tae-Gon Kim.
Written by: Tae-Gon Kim, Kim Yong-Hwa, Park Joo-Suk.
Starring: Lee Sun-Kyun, Kim Su-An, Ju Ji-Hoon, Kim Hee-Won, etc.
7.5/10 = WORTH RENTING OR BUYING
Comments