Writer, director, and producer Attila Korosi has expanded his earlier tale, Demon Dancer: Sua/Nara, into a director’s cut ahead of its North American and European release. It’s an underground world where demons hunt human hosts, and at its center is Sua, a Korean ballerina driven by grief and bound to a supernatural demon who has become her most dangerous ally.
In this extended version, the story’s core remains intact. Sua (Han Jiyeon) is a Korean ballerina who wakes up strapped to a research table, her fingers sawed off by a sadistic man recording the whole thing for “research” on human pain thresholds…but really, he is possessed by a demon. In her agony, she screams the demon’s name, Nara (Anita Korosi), and it answers. Nara temporarily possesses Sua. She supernaturally reattaches Sua’s fingers, and with Sua’s dancer’s instincts and Nara’s supernatural force, the two fight together as one through a corridor of henchmen in a brutal first-person POV escape.
With Sua spent from exhaustion and a brutal beating, Nara coaxes her to a safe haven in an elevator shaft. Sua’s post-fight exhaustion brings back memories of her husband, Jack (Joseph Kim), an artist who had received a high-level curse from an unknown demon. It was his artist’s imagination, his only protection against the darkness circling him, seeking a way to possess him. When Jack finally succumbed, Sua was forced to kill him herself. Now she’s hunting the demon responsible, piecing together a trail to the demon and the man he possessed.
Nara in demon form looms behind Sua as she wields blue lightning weapons in Demon Dancer: Sua/Nara.
“Sua is ultimately forced to battle Kang, the powerful demon who poses as a detective on Earth to investigate the ‘murders’ of random citizens.”
To find the demon, Sua reaches out to her mentor, Harmony (Shinyoung Moon), who helps her inscribe Jack’s curse upon herself, allowing Nara to possess her and take on a new set of skills as a demon hunter.
Filmmaker Attila Korosi addresses some of my concerns from the first film, which felt like an incomplete tale and was missing key elements of Sua’s journey. The director’s cut better explains the present world and the supernatural one, and shows that two souls, Sua and Nara, exist almost as a single entity simultaneously in both realms. Korosi builds upon the relationship between the pair. I still can’t unsee Sua having Nara’s symbol carved into her body.
He also deepens the connection between Sua and her mentor, Harmony, as Sua is ultimately forced to battle Kang, the powerful demon who poses as a detective on Earth to investigate the “murders” of random citizens.
Let’s face it. The draw of Demon Dancer: Sua/Nara is its action, choreographed by Blue Dragon Award winner Gui-Duck Kwon, and its blend of CG effects that gives it a supernatural feel. Again, Kwon blends Han Jiyeon’s graceful ballet movements with hard-hitting martial arts action. As much as I like action, story must always remain supreme in a film. Here, Korosi builds on the underlying story to create a stronger narrative foundation.
For screening information, visit the Demon Dancer: Sua/Nara official website.
"…her fingers sawed off by a sadistic man..."
