Movie Review: Twelve

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it’s the Korean fantasy-action series “Twelve” (트웰브). I did not think Twelve would appeal to me as much as it did when I was watching it. I was afraid it would be another colorful fantasy-action film, but the manner in which it incorporates myth, grit, and bare human burden impressed me even after the end-credits. It was not only the spectacle- the fights and the visuals were crazy, but it was the small moments that got under my skin.

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There is this opening scene when Tae-san, the tiger amongst angels, moves through the city as a man who is burdened with centuries of battles. He does not say much, but you can feel the fatigue in him, that heavy kind of silence which tells you that he has lost more than he will ever admit. And when he gazes at the mural of the fallen four--the ones that sacrificed all to entomb the darkness--you could nearly hear the whispers of the ghosts around him. That scene slapped me in the face Not that it was dramatic, but that his guilt was eating him alive.

What confused me was the coming back of O-gwi. Park Hyung-sik portrays him in this dark and cold manner as someone who smiles before he kicks you out in the dark. There is the scene where he finds himself in a busy street in contemporary Seoul and nobody notices that he is there, but somehow it feels like Seoul is aware that evil is passing through it. I remember being there with a racing heart even though nothing very big was on the screen. It was nothing more than his presence, his stillness, the way the camera lingered on his eyes which made me feel that something dreadful is about to engulf everything.

There is Won-seung, the monkey, spouting off with the sharpest lines and the slyest grins as though he is too smart for himself. He even made me laugh at something that I did not anticipate. There is one moment when the angels are debating whether they should even be in this fight anymore and he makes this half-serious/half-sarcastic remark that broke the tension and it felt like you were watching old friends argue at a bar as opposed to warriors deciding the fate of the world. I needed that laugh because the entire climate was so serious.

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But the scene that cut me to the quick was when the angels fell down under the storm--their powers blazing like real constellations--and you felt in their faces the burden of what was coming. It was not only about overcoming some evil power, it was about accepting the fact that not everyone would walk away. My chest tightened up It made me think of that awful sinking feeling you get when you realize the night out with your mates could be the last time that group will ever be complete. That combination of love and dread and inevitability broke me open.

At least by the end I was not considering the CGI or the epicness of the battles. What I remembered was the sadness in the eyes of Tae-san, the sharpness of the smile of O-gwi, the hints of humor that made humans seem so vulnerable even when they are trying to play deities. Twelve was not only entertaining but it left me with a sense of being haunted as I felt, I had touched something bigger than myself. And perhaps that is why I keep having it replaying in my head.

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Thumbnail is designed by me on pixelLab and other images are screenshot from the movie