Revelations (2025)
Choice vs. Fate
Revelations (2025) is about two driven people who both believe in justice but have fundamentally different views on what that means.
Sung Min-chan (Ryu Jun-yeol) is a young, charismatic Christian pastor who is hoping to establish a successful church in Seoul. Sung has a fire and brimstone view of God. He fervently believes that the Lord is urging him to destroy evildoers. If Dexter Morgan from Dexter was a religious Korean dude, he would be this guy.
When a local girl vanishes, Sung believes that she has been murdered by a sex offender. It’s up to him (or so he believes) to find and kill the perpetrator. Anyone who tries to stop him will be dealt with.
Detective Lee Yeon-hee (Shin Hyun-been) is trying to find the missing girl as well. She is haunted by hallucinations of her dead sister. Her sibling’s apparition is urging her to solve the case. Lee has a by-the-book approach. She wants to arrest the perpetrator and bring him to justice the “right” way.
The two main characters’ paths inevitably converge in the third act. Both actors give solid performances. Their emotional conflicts and deep desire to find the girl seem genuine.
A Great Theme That Isn’t Fully Analyzed
Revelations was directed by Yeon Sang-ho, who is best known for Train to Busan. He isn’t able to top, or even equal, that movie here. Of course, that’s a high bar. Train to Busan is one of the best zombie movies I’ve ever seen. If it was in English, it would be famous worldwide.
There are no flesh-eating undead roaming the streets of Seoul in Revelations, but there is a bloodthirsty pastor, a sociopathic kidnapper, and a detective whose sanity is slipping away from her. That’s enough to keep the movie interesting.
Sang-ho grapples with the concept of fatalism. It turns out that the kidnapper also believes that he’s being compelled by a supernatural entity. Are any of these people truly being driven by forces outside of their control, or do they just want to believe this, since it gives them an easy way to justify their actions?
The movie should have delved deeper into this concept. Choice vs. fate is a great theme, but Revelations doesn’t have anything profound to say. It settles for being a conventional morality play.
Revelations has a messy script. It includes unnecessary subplots that take time and focus off the main story. The writing should have been more focused on the main trio and what connects them together.
To be clear, this movie’s dialogue is entirely in Korean, so if you don’t speak the language, you will have to read subtitles (or listen to horrible dubbed voices) to watch this movie. This isn’t a particularly complicated film dialogue-wise, so it’s not challenging to watch it this way.
Rating
Revelations is a compelling psychological thriller, but it doesn’t reach its full potential.
Rating from 1 (avoid at all costs) to 10 (masterpiece): 7
