Acquisitions – Foreign Films

Vicious Village: Well Go USA Puts Spell on “The Wailing”

Published on May 6, 2016

Last year, Well Go USA made an impressive, headline grabbing pre-Cannes move in picking up Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s The Assassin and now lightning strikes twice as they’ve partnered with Fox International Productions to land the North American rights to Hong-jin Na’s anticipated Cannes Out of Comp title The Wailing. Wasting no time, the distrib will release the film on May 27th.

Gist: The arrival of a mysterious stranger (Chun Woo-hee) in an otherwise quiet village coincides with a rash of vicious murders, causing panic and suspicion amongst the villagers. When the daughter of investigating officer Jong-Goo (Kwak Do-won) falls under the same savage spell, he calls for a shaman (Hwang Jung-min) to assist in finding the culprit.

Worth Noting: 3 for 3: All of Hong-jin Na films have premiered at the Cannes Film Festival.

Do We Care?: Making a name for himself with his first two outings (The Chaser and The Yellow Sea) the fanbase will get their kicks and fix for South Korean genre cinema with this item. Reviews will trickle out shortly.

Gist:
Worth Noting:
Do We Care?:

Related Topics:Acquisitions Foreign Films, acquisitions-foreign-films, Hong-jin Na, The Wailing, Well Go USA

Eric Lavallée

Eric Lavallée is the founder, CEO, editor-in-chief, film journalist and critic at IONCINEMA.com (founded in 2000). Eric is a regular at Sundance, Cannes and TIFF. He has a BFA in Film Studies at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema. In 2013 he served as a Narrative Competition Jury Member at the SXSW Film Festival. He was an associate producer on Mark Jackson's This Teacher (2018 LA Film Festival, 2018 BFI London). In 2022 he served as a New Flesh Comp for Best First Feature at the 2022 Fantasia Intl. Film Festival. Current top films for 2022 include Tár (Todd Field), All That Breathes (Shaunak Sen), Aftersun (Charlotte Wells).