I appreciate the effort behind YEELEN. It is certainly different. The film is a folktale complete with lots of magic and simplistic outdoor sets. It literally looked as if the director went into the semi-desert countryside and filmed this legend using whatever villagers he could find. The sets and acting were very natural and the monsters/spirits were people wearing simple costumes inspired by traditional tribal paints and masks. My problem with the film is that it is less a MOVIE in the Western sense, but more like the work of a ethnologist or sociologist filming a tribal folktale. So, this is important as a preserved record of their culture, but honestly, to me it became awfully dull and ponderous after a while. You really need to have a strong motivation to watch this and can overlook the slapped together quality of the film.
Review of Yeelen
