Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Kim Tae-gon
Starring: Lee Sun-kyun, Kim Su-an, Ju Ji-hoon, Kim Hee-won, Park Ju-hyun
While Hollywood execs scratch their heads and attempt to figure out
what the hell western cinemagoers want from them, their cousins in the
film industries of the Far East have it sussed. Audiences in East Asia
apparently want the same sort of movies that once filled western
multiplexes before they were shoved aside by superhero romps: i.e.
ensemble disaster flicks, sci-fi action and animal attacks
thrillers.
With Project Silence, writer/director Kim Tae-gon (co-writing with Park Joo-suk and Kim Yong-hwa) would seem to have delivered the
ultimate crowd-pleaser. His film is an ensemble disaster flick with
elements of science fiction and a horde of rampaging canines. While this
should make for classic popcorn thrills, in practice it's a slog that
fails to understand the basic appeal of the various sub-genres it mashes
together into a flavourless paste.
Like any disaster movie, here we get an array of characters who all
find themselves in a life-threatening situation. The main focus is on
Jung-won (Lee Sun-kyun), a recently widowed presidential aide
whose obsession with his work has seen him emotionally neglect his
grieving young daughter Kyung-min (Kim Su-an). While
crossing a lengthy suspension bridge in heavy fog, Jung-won and
Kyung-min narrowly avoid getting caught up in the major pile-up that
occurs when an influencer recording himself speeding in and out of
traffic loses control of the wheel and causes a major crash, damaging
the bridge in the process. Also caught in the carnage are the
elderly Byeong-hak (Moon Sung-keun) and his senile wife
Soon-ok (Ye Soo-jung); professional golfer Yoo-ra (Park Ju-hyun) and her manager Mi-ran (Park Hee-von); and tow truck
driver/con artist Joe (Ju Ji-hoon).
A slowly collapsing bridge is the least of this lot's troubles. It just
happens that a military truck transporting a number of genetically
supercharged killer dogs also crashed, spilling its canine cargo onto
the bridge. With the doggos chowing down on every bit of human meat they
can find, our small group of survivors are forced to work with Doctor
Yang (Kim Hee-won), the mad scientist who turned these pooches
into man-eating mongrels, if they want to make it through the night.
Project Silence may sound like a winner on paper, but in its uncertain execution
it's dogged (no pun intended) by various issues. For a start it
routinely fails to deliver the expected goods. The main thrill of
disaster and animal attacks movies is in seeing the group of survivors
whittled down as one by one they succumb to falling debris or the jaws
of antagonistic beasts. None of the characters here suffer anything more
than some minor nibbling; after the dogs initially take out some
nameless extras, the survivors remain just that for the rest of the
movie, removing much of the jeopardy. Another part of the appeal of such
movies is in seeing famous names become victims, but only the
late Parasite star Lee Sun-kyun could be described as a "name" in this
cast, at least where western audiences are concerned.
The movie is also blighted by annoying comic relief in the form of the
mugging Ju Ji-hoon, whose character you'll be preying gets his
comeuppance. The CG is second rate, meaning the dogs never convince as
living, breathing animals. Having dogs as your movie's villains means
risking the ire of animal lovers in the audience, and there's something
undeniably grim about seeing these creatures taken out by their human
foes. At a certain point the movie somewhat acknowledges this, revealing
how the alpha dog, "E9", was trained to become violent by having her
puppies killed in front of her eyes. It seems as though the film is
about to take a turn into Planet of the Apes territory with E9 posited as a Caesar figure leading a doggy
revolt (ala the Hungarian movie White God), but this sub-plot is brushed aside, though the film's coda hints at
a sequel that might centre this concept.
For all of its promise of canine vs human bloodshed, Project Silence is a frustratingly neutered affair. All the clichés of its
mashed-up sub-genre are put in place, but they're never embraced with
any real commitment. Too much of the running time is devoted to
explaining a backstory that is ultimately irrelevant, and there's a long
stretch in the middle where the characters just stand around bickering
as they try to figure out their next move. This doggy disaster flick
will leave fans of such fare waiting for the filmmakers to throw them a
bone, but they'll be left to settle for scraps.
Project Silence is on UK/ROI VOD
from February 10th.
