Psychokinesis: Small Scale Superhero Story

We’re very accustomed to the superhero. It is a sub-genre of action that needs no introduction or explanation. From every medium, from animation, to live action film, to serialized television and everything in-between it is a dominating force of art and pop-culture. The journey of an individual or group of individuals overcoming large scale, and in some cases, global threats, multifaceted conflicts spanning the world over featuring people going through personal journeys we could collectively look up to for guidance in the most desperate of times to lift our spirits. It’s a tried and tested formula. But does it have to be?

Psychokinesis, as you can imagine, is not of the same creative muse. Director Yeon Sang-ho, whose works I’ve covered quite a bit since I started writing, had something a little different in mind. A man who clearly enjoys putting his own personal spices into the saturated (and dare I say "trendy") genres of the day.

Shin Roo-mi is the owner of a successful fried chicken restaurant in Seoul. However the placement of her restaurant is precarious as she is being pushed out by a mob-run construction company. Roo-mi is evicted with force by hired muscle and her mother is killed in the skirmish.

Seok-heon is a security guard, who is not exactly the most morally upstanding of people, drinks water from a mountain spring, and subsequently gains telekinetic powers after doing so. Roo-mi contacts Seok-heon, her estranged father, to inform him of his ex-wife’s death. Wanting to regain his place in his daughter’s life Seok-heon is compelled to use his newfound powers to the aid of her situation.

Everything about this film is small scale, or at least in a much smaller scale compared to that of it’s contemporaries. A small territorial land dispute taking place almost exclusively on a few blocks of a street in Seoul, a morally flawed unrighteous individual with self-interested motivations, and a hero eschewing flashy and flamboyant super suits for modern middle-aged Korean male fashion. Very few things about it feel “super”. Its premise looks comparatively tiny put up against its MCU older brothers. But it is certainly more than just that. It’s self-awareness in reminding the viewers that this is not the Captain America or Thor that you’re used to does it many favors as opposed to taking itself overly-seriously, incorporating elements of black-comedy a la Bong Joon-ho. While it does stretch itself a little to far and eventually become slightly bigger than it probably should have its at least done in service to the spectacle of a final fight, so it feels more forgivable to me at the very least as opposed to a work that unapologetically bloats itself out of proportion. 

In comparison to one woefully underdeveloped character who isn’t given enough screen time to embed herself in your mind as the sole “villain” Psychokinesis’ antagonists feel a bit too nebulous. Being more of a collective corporate juggernaut, it’s possible it was a sacrifice that needed to be made in order to achieve its greater vision of grounding but it’s undeniable that it hurts the film. The motivations, while real, aren’t particularly compelling either as “MORE MONEY” doesn’t exactly resonate as reasoning.

Examining my own interpretations of the messages this work is trying to convey is somewhat of a deconstruction of the concept of what makes a superhero as such and how we perceive them. The larger than life powers inherited, the responsibility that entails, those are superficial. Maybe being a loving father, redeeming himself not just to his daughter but in his own eyes too, that’s heroic. Makes you think that parenting being the only real superpower that exists in our believable world, isn’t so unbelievable after all.

In experiencing Yeon Sang-ho's works from both animation and live-action I've noticed the distinct thematic and emotional contrast between them. If his animation films are meant to explore the more darker and harrowing aspects of the human experience, often being used to express frustration and dismay with the current direction of our collective existence, then his live-action filmography has a gentler, softer, and more hopeful lens through which he views our experiences. Balancing out and measuring from multiple sides of our seemingly infinite-sided gray matter grime.