Stream It or Skip It: ‘Psychokinesis’ on Netflix, The Origin Story Of A New South Korean Superhero

Movie: Psychokinesis
Directed By: Yeon Sang-ho (Train To Busan)
Cast: Ryu Seung-ryong, Shim Eun-kyung
Where It’s Streaming: Netflix

The Gist: It’s just your normal everyday tale of father-daughter bonding in South Korea. Except the daughter is an anti-corporate crusader. And the father drank some water from a spring tainted by a fallen meteor, and now he can move objects with his mind. And it’s all a modern-day superhero origin story. Roo-mi (Shim Eun-ku) is a young, politically-minded woman in South Korea working to stop the advancements of a giant construction company, whose world is torn apart when her mother is killed by police in the middle of a demonstration. At the same time, her estranged father Seok-hyeon (Ryu Seung-ryong) takes a cool sip of refreshing mountain water, not realizing it’s been meteor-ified, and soon enough, he’s exhibiting strange abilities. As father and daughter reconect, they find his newfound powers could really help in the fight against this evil corporation, and a superhero is born.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of: The sight of Seok-hyeon at full power flying through the city streets will absolutely make you think of Hancock, while the prospect of a South Korean girl defying corporatized greed and violence on Netflix will make you think of Okja. Both are a little bit correct. This kind of unconventional superhero origin story has been done by everyone from Will Smith to M. Night Shyamalan at the movies, and on TV with stuff like Heroes. Psychokinesis isn’t quite that dramatic in its early goings — in fact, it’s rather silly for long stretches — but by its final half-hour, the drama has been set up quite well, and the payoff when Seok-hyeon finally unleashes his full set of powers to save his little girl is compelling.

Performance Worth Watching: Both of the leads are great, but watch out for Jung Yu-mi playing a disarming yet very dangerous corporate executive looking to neutralize the threat of these protestors in her midst. She’s playing this on a few different levels.

Memorable Dialogue: “Mr. Superhero, those with real power aren’t people like us. They were born to win.” The slow unfolding of Jung Yu-mi’s character as she interrogates Seok-hyeon is truly something special to watch.

Single Best Shot: As Seok-hyeon desperately tries to harness his powers to save Roo-mi, his lays himself nearly horizontally flat. The whole sequence is a stunner.

Our Take: This is a movie that starts out pretty strange, but it absolutely rewards you for sticking with it. It will also make you want to run-not-walk to track down Yeon Sang-ho’s previous film, Train to Busan, which got the director some of his best-ever reviews a couple years ago. It’s about a zombie outbreak on a train, which is pretty much all the recommendation you need.

Our Call: Stream It. And stream Train to Busan — also available on Netflix — next.

Stream Psychokinesis on Netflix

Stream Train to Busan on Netflix