REVIEW: ‘Mash Ville’ Is Doing A Lot All Of The Time

Mash Ville was a film that I wandered into. I was intrigued by the cast, particularly Sin-hwan Jeon (who starred in one of my favorite dramas of 2023 and two of my favorite Korean films, The Housemaid and A Company Man). The South Korean genre-bending, sometimes funny, and sometimes unbelievably dark film was the standout of Fantasia Festival’s 2024 line-up.

Written by Lim Dong-min and Wook Hwang, Wook directs Mash Ville and smashes together genres in a hyper-stylized fashion that feeds off absurdity without sacrificing impact. Set in a small rural town, Joo Se-jong and his two younger brothers are bootleggers. But when someone dies after drinking their liquor, they have to save the town of Hwaseong by taking it all back. A straightforward plot? Yeah, no, that’s just the beginning. Winding together different perspectives of the same events, director Wook and writer Lim create a whodunit that embraces Westerns, dark comedies, and cults.

But that synopsis makes the film seem more straightforward than it is. At the same time that the moonshining brothers are trying to stop their poisonous hooch from killing more people, Hyun-Man Kang, Seo-In Moon, and Ye-Jin are shooting a movie on a tight budget and trying to find the right corpse for their shoot. When one is discovered in a trunk, the film veers into another arm of narrative exploration. There are the homicidal cultists terrorizing the small town of Hwaseong as they attempt to get twelve bodies for their ritual. Two groups need corpses; one just wants to stop creating more, and then, of course, there’s Jae-Wo, the cop.

There is a lot to love in Mash Ville, and with a run time of just over two hours, each act adds more layers to the same simple series of events that get more and more clouded as time goes on. By complicating the narrative the longer that film goes, Wook and Lim have taken on a monumental task. Not only do they have to solve a mystery and pull off a heist, they also have to build emotional stakes and craft a mystery along the way. And they do it to great effect by leaning into absurdity and not shying away from taking large swings.

With a large ensemble cast, every character is firing on all cylinders. While the dialogue and delivery of it all land, it’s the costuming and production design that takes the film up several notches. The vibrant costumes and alternating color filters for the film, most notably a yellowish sepia, all lend to creating a world that only operates in extremes. Mash Ville embraces an almost campy sense of style that constantly exaggerates its characters into memorable moments.

Mash Ville may sometimes become convoluted, but the visual language that director Wook employs never lets you look away. Every set feels extensively constructed, and every costume color choice represents a level of intentionality that makes Mash Ville a charismatic film from beginning to end. The film pushes your suspension of disbelief as the story gets weirder and grander with each act, yet it holds you tight. The eclectic styles and narrative delivery make the film zany, with just the right amount of disconnection that makes it feel special. The timeless quality of the costumes and small towns also allows the film to exist in this wickedly interesting space of reality.

Mash Ville is a lot, and it’s not always coherent. Yet, it’s always entertaining, always charismatic, and an extremely fun cinematic time. Sometimes, mashing together every idea you have in one film pays off.

Mash Ville had its world premiere at the Fantasia International Film Festival.