The 9th Precinct (2019)
Even the dead need a hand now and then.
Are you ready for the last full review of 2019? Man, what a trip this year has been. Yeah, maybe it was a little “horror” heavy, but when left to my own devices I gravitate to what looks interesting, and it’s not my fault that tends to be spooky movies. I did notice, perhaps in an overall variety not entirely reflected by my reviews here, that I also am watching a lot of foreign movies - perhaps more so than the years before. I guess that’s the power of something like Netflix branching out - when those movies suddenly become easily available, it leads to more dabbling, be it from monsters to zombies to historically fantastic martial arts movies. After reflecting on it a little bit, I decided that it’s only fitting that I give that last slot up to another foreign flick - and to be honest, it’s more because it was in the top bar of Netflix going “you might want to check this out” and sounded interesting enough that I hopped in. Let us go ahead and see if I chose well for the last round of the year, perhaps some detectives can ask some spirits if I have a ghost of a chance down in The 9th Precinct.
What is this movie about? I mean, reading the description you might think it’s something like RIPD - but it really isn’t. Ghosts are rather subdued in this movie, but in turn it certainly brings about something that actually fits very well with the upcoming change of year - that concept of new beginnings and past baggage. Of course, it’s all wrapped in a modern-ish semi-fantasy where ghosts are flicking about and shady dark-side dealings are going on to unfurl as a mystery saturated with more character and drama moments then the somewhat doofus of a main character would initially imply. Ghosts exist, and through them we get to have our story guided somewhat into the mystery elements, slowly linking things up and allowing for more to unfurl - all while learning how to be part of this police division tasked with helping ghosts reach peace - and incarcerating some of the more rowdy ones - spills out various life lessons about understanding, family, belonging, acceptance, and what can happen when you cross fate.
I mean, let’s be honest here though - the mystery is good for all of 10 minutes of thought, and as soon as the villain is introduced it’s incredibly easy to call who they are. Yes, it still hides a few tricks around it’s tail feathers to flaunt at you so you don’t feel like you knew every little detail of how it was going to play out, but it might as well have a mustache twirling man in a black top hat and monocle smoking a cigar surrounded by a bunch of corpses. Still, what it lacks for in surprise turns it makes up for in feeling rather rooted despite all of the silliness that plays out over the run time. The main character gets in hijinks - of which there are plenty of various kinds and with varying levels of relevance to the plot. He’s not the only one who gets such moments either, despite being the butt of most of it. Even with all that comical levity thrown about, it still has serious moments, and more so than that it’s dialogue can at times be downright sombre and quite thoughtful - particularly when in relation to why a ghost is the way it is or the problems of disconnected perceptions of the living towards them. There’s also a rather blatant theme of justice and doing what’s right in spite of fate, but i find the more well feeling ones are the more subtle lines as they play out, as they have a far better emotional payoff.
The actors, as far as I can tell, do a pretty decent job here. I can’t comment on line delivery - not my language, so how could I be expected to comment on if it carries the right inflections and emotional output in word usage? From body language, they do a pretty good job I’d say, although some can at times feel a bit boosted up in playing things out - despite being told our main is a good martial artist in the beginning, with how much of a goof he is through most the movie it almost feels bizarre to see him actually kick the crap out of some bad guys later on. Given the different culture, I wouldn’t be entirely doubtful to hear that most of it is either intentional (some of the lines certainly feel that way), and there are definately scenes that are completely self aware of what they are and interrupt it to bring in a moment of laughs (whether it hit’s your humor preference or not). I’d argue all the lines are decently enough written out as well - some of the comments characters make are basically a wink or nod at the camera without being Deadpool levels of wall breaking.
Probably the coolest effect in-use.
Effects are pretty well done as well. Yes, there isn’t an absolute smorgasbord of different things to see here - this isn’t ghost land of Tim Burton or something like that - it plays it’s supernatural bits more close to the ground. Most ghosts are just people, probably covered in a powder of some sort, tinted slightly blue-grey and occasionally given a shimmer and alpha effect that lets you see through them slightly. The body-painted powder look isn’t something I’m totally unfamiliar with - especially in Tai movies. It does a suitable job of making people look off without being violent or disturbing - although how well it does at covering up eyebrows does make it somewhat unsettling at times. Occasionally - mostly just with the naughty ghosts - you get some forms of more advanced costuming. The best is right after one gets smacked into a cell, having himself an oversized head with a big old cheshire style mouth - as it’s on the screen for a good bit where you can see it clearly and without too much going on - but there are a few others with various levels of spooky mutations or “battle damage” if you’d like to call it that. That’s really most of the effects work of the movie right there - but it honestly works fine and all looks quite well done.
Audio is a bit of something rough for me to comment in super detail. I can hear everything the actors say - but it’s not like I can understand it to comment on most of the verbal side of things regardless of hearing it. I don’t remember any real music, but I do know it was in there and played well with what was going on in the scenes, be it menacing or slightly silly. Sound effects do a fine job here, and carry a nice amount of punch on things that should without overpowering everything. All of that said, there is a strange bit of thing that happened and I’m not sure what it was all about. In two or three scenes, the audio just becomes… well, off I suppose. There’s this strange doubling echo going on, where only the actor deliveries are echoed while sound effects and music are not. There’s also another scene where one character’s audio quality just sounds like it was recorded somewhere else on a crappier microphone or something - which is all the more noticable because they are having a conversation with someone who isn’t experiencing the same problem. I assume it’s the movie and not on my end (otherwise shouldn’t everything be equally burdened by echoes and degraded quality?) It is thankfully not the entire movie - just those two or three scenes - but man, the rest of the movie feels pretty polished and it just kind of makes those parts pop out even more in the memory.
Now, of course if you refuse to read a movie you’ll end up skipping this one. Beyond that though, or if it someday gets a release that has a dub or something along those lines (honestly, I couldn’t even find it outside of Netflix in the first place when watching it tonight) then those kind of people would have no excuse to no watch this. It’s that odd sort of movie where it’s not really action heavy, or mystery heavy, or even too comedy heavy - but it does have all of them in there mixed up pretty well. Yes, comedy is subjective and not everyone is going to be laughing - I wasn’t exactly laughing at most the jokes, but I was still enjoying watching the movie and was rather intrigued by how it would play out despite calling the bad guy and their plan as soon as it so much as introduced the character. The humor isn’t in the way of the movie most the time, only occasionally feeling like it really didn’t need to be there, and I don’t feel that most of it would be inaccessible to a larger audience. There’s a crude joke or two in there, although relatively harmless in honesty, and outside of the ghosts floating about it wouldn’t be terrible as a family outing given most things aren’t terribly graphic - although I’d wager kid’s wouldn’t want to read their movies anyways so perhaps not.
There is a charm to ghosts subtle enough that you can’t be sure if someone in the background is one.
I could recommend this to a bunch of people for at least a one time watch I think. It’s pretty good, even if it’s not necessarily going to pull to much on you that you didn’t expect. It’s an absolute grab bag of different elements - horror, comedy, mystery, some action even - without really being too much of any of them. It’s finest points are probably the drama elements and the potential “emotional learning” that it can pitch about various topics via use of interaction with ghosts, and in fairness the final action scene is pretty rocking while it lasts as well. It’s not totally devoid of issues - namely a few moments of poor audio, or perhaps sometimes feeling a little goofier than it probably needed to be, but it’s certainly an enjoyable watch. Check it out sometimes perhaps - maybe it’ll come out on more things than just Netflix to widen the range, but at least until then or the license is up and it gets removed it can at least be found there.