I’ve been looking for this one for a long time.
Korean Science Fiction movies really came to the attention of western fans of speculative fiction in 2003 when the movie Natural City — sometimes called the “Korean Blade Runner” — came out.
Technically, it was one of several Korean Science Fiction films that came out around that time, most of which got at least some attention here in the West — notably the insane comedy Save the Green Planet; an attempt at a Korean copy of Japanese anime, Wonderful Days; and, a year earlier, an alternate history film 2009: Lost Memories which reached the U.S. at about the same time as Natural City. There was even an early computer generated anime from 2003, Elysium, which got a minimal DVD release here.
I’m can’t explain this sudden surge of Korean science fiction, at least not entirely. Obviously they had their eyes on Western — and Japanese — trends, and you can point out the similarities between several of those films and films popular in America.
But, ironically, 2003 was the same year that two of the most highly regarded of the new generation of Korean films, Oldboy and Memories of Murder, debuted. They were among the first films which sparked the current Western interest in Korean film.
And, I’ll note, Save the Green Planet has developed a very culty following in the U.S. as well.
Whatever the explanation, people started to pay attention to the movies coming out of Korean thanks to these films. That increased even more when the incredible monster movie, The Host came out three years later.
Somewhere in between them fell this quirky low-budget thriller about a strange young man with incredible psychic gifts and an even stranger series of murders committed by someone with enormous strength.
Not that anyone paid too much attention to it when it came out.
Jun Oh works as a portrait artist in the park, promising his clients that if he can’t finish a portrait of them in two minutes, they can have the drawing for free. While he suffers from terrible headaches, his girlfriend, Jenny, helps him get the drug which can control them.
But one day a pair of cops want to talk to him because they found his fingerprint on the body of the most recent victim of a serial killer who beats up his victims then breaks their spines…
I suppose you might describe this one as a low-budget Korean version of Scanners, although it doesn’t have the same absurd levels of gore.
But we do have a secret research program, people with incredible telekinetic powers, and an ultimate showdown between two of them.
Brain Wave didn’t have much of a budget, but it still looks fairly good because most of it was shot on location. A lot of time is spent some of the seedier parts of Seoul, which sets the tone for most of the film. I do wonder at times, as the chase scenes lead us through the rabbit warrens of crumbling buildings and homeless encampments, whether we are going through the same few streets over and over again.
First time director Terra Shin (sometimes billed as Shin Terra or even Shinterra) chose to edit it all together in a rather flashy sort of way, with a lot of strange cuts, wipes and multi-split screens thrown in at times. This is coupled with a lot of deliberately fuzzy cinematography and some very arty shots which remind me just a little of Darren Aronofsky’s very subjective camera work in Pi. It would make more sense in a music video, but I’ll admit that it more or less works and gives the film an interesting flavor.
Most of the reviews of this film I’ve seen have been indifferent, which I find somewhat puzzling as it proved to be a solid little thriller which looks good and uses its minimal effects well. It builds up the mysterious antagonist, making him a frightening and seemingly unstoppable enemy, and only resorting to the most extreme demonstrations of his power once we reach the end of the film.
It starts out with a stunning opening sequence, in which a man flees in terror through a deserted and very industrial looking arcade, from a mostly unseen figure, with a beautifully executed tracking shot which is very much like the one George Lucas pulled off in his short film version of THX-1138. It’s really quite impressive for a debut film. Unfortunately, no one paid much attention to Brain Wave, at the time or since.
Which is definitely a shame.
Terra Shin would go on to make a far better known film, Geomeun jip (Black House) which has a bit of a following, but his career never took off. He moved away from horror and only made another two films.
Sadly, Brain Wave has vanished almost completely and is now very hard to find. I suppose all things considered, it isn’t a lost classic, and there are a lot of battling telepaths movies out there.
But if you do run across a copy by all means give it a watch. It is one of the better battling telepaths films out there.
Even if it isn’t as good as The Power, or Scanners…
rivets on the poster 