What a viewNetflix series Bulgasal: Immortal Souls – supernatural thriller with a nod to Marvel follows cursed immortal through history
- Lee Jin-wook plays the undying Hwal who, cursed and shunned by villagers, travels though centuries of Korean history killing monsters and trying to free himself
- Meanwhile, on BBC Earth animals wear small cameras to document their lives and habitats in a second season of Animals with Cameras
“Who wants to live forever?” Freddie Mercury once sang. Well not the hero of Korean supernatural fantasy thriller Bulgasal: Immortal Souls (series one now streaming on Netflix).
The trouble is that it is not much fun being an immortal when you are cursed from birth, then sent on a mission you didn’t ask for to reclaim your soul and put an end to a 600-year-old vendetta. Being unable to be killed or otherwise die eventually loses its lustre, apparently.
Shunned by his village of superstitious peasants and forced to live as an outcast, a grubby, nameless boy is adopted by an army general who happens to be passing just as the hicks have decided to try finishing the youngster off (despite his indestructibility).
Known henceforth as Hwal, he becomes a fearsome warrior famed for dispatching human-chomping monsters, but not the one that counts: Bulgasal, whose curse he bears, as do, later, his family.
Through the Korean Goryeo and Joseon dynasties and beyond, with countless rebirths ensuring he can’t abandon his fate, Hwal, played by a brooding Lee Jin-wook, wanders the centuries while trying to free his spirit. A decent helping of bloody battlefield action from the beginning progresses to comparable brutality as the story moves into the present day.
Other medieval monsters, reincarnated as humans, compete with Hwal for souls as the horror mounts, the unkillable are repeatedly butchered and the respective rosters for team evil and team righteous become confused – and confusing.