General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Psychokinesis (염력)

Psychokinesis (염력) is a 2018 South Korean superhero film written and directed by Yeon Sang-ho, in which a bank security guard gains the telekinetic ability to move objects with his mind and uses it to help his estranged daughter fight a forced eviction.¹ It was Yeon's second live-action feature, following his 2016 zombie thriller Train to Busan, and it has been described as the first South Korean superhero film.¹

Key fact	Detail
Release	January 31, 2018, in South Korean theaters, in 2D and ScreenX formats; 101 minutes¹
Streaming	Made available globally on Netflix starting April 25, 2018¹
Cast	Ryu Seung-ryong, Shim Eun-kyung, Park Jeong-min, Kim Min-jae, and Jung Yu-mi¹
Budget	13 billion won (about $11.7 million)²
Opening day	264,659 admissions on January 31, 2018, the highest opening score of any 2018 Korean release at that point³
Final box office	990,104 admissions and $5,569,760 gross on 1,099 screens⁴
Production	RedPeter Films; distributed by Next Entertainment World (NEW)⁴

Spoilers

Plot and premise

Seok-heon (Ryu Seung-ryong) is a financially struggling bank security guard who undergoes a strange transformation after drinking water from a mountain spring struck by a meteor: he can suddenly move objects with his mind alone.⁴^•⁵ His estranged daughter Roo-mi (Shim Eun-kyung) runs a fried chicken restaurant in a shopping arcade that a large construction company, working through the fixer Mr. Min (Kim Min-jae) and his men, wants to clear for demolition and redevelopment.⁴^•⁵ Roo-mi and her fellow shopkeepers refuse to leave, and the confrontation takes a new turn when her father arrives with his newfound power.⁴

The film is a black comedy with a socially conscious message rather than a conventional superhero spectacle. Its protagonist never saves the world or takes on a mission from a state intelligence agency; instead the story stays with an ordinary man, and the film mocks mainstream Korean news media in a scene where a TV weapons expert claims North Korea was responsible for the "formidable human weapon" that has appeared among the evictees.⁶

Real-world inspiration

The eviction conflict at the center of the plot drew on a real event: the deadly 2009 clash between protesters resisting redevelopment and police in central Seoul's Yongsan District.² This grounding in a tragedy that many South Koreans still felt keenly shaped audience reactions. Some viewers who came expecting a light fantasy film found the weight of the Yongsan tragedy hard to handle, and film critic Kim Hyung-seok argued that the father-daughter sentimentality and comedic use of the powers distracted from the psychokinesis premise the title promised; he also noted that a happy ending built on a tragedy still causing pain upset some audiences.² Other critics praised the director's effort to dramatize the real-life story and to transform tragedy into hope.²

Box office performance

Expectations were high before release. Yeon's previous film, Train to Busan, had been 2016's best-selling Korean movie with 11.56 million tickets sold, and audiences anticipated a well-made local superhero film.² The film opened strongly: its first-day total of 264,659 admissions topped the openings of Miracle in Cell No. 7 (152,808) and Miss Granny (142,843), and it took first place at the box office.³

The run then collapsed quickly. Within a week it had been overtaken by the drama Keys to the Heart and fallen to fifth place in daily rankings, drawing 15,123 admissions on February 8.⁷ By mid-February, ticket sales had not reached one million against a production budget of 13 billion won, a result the Korea JoongAng Daily called a huge flop given the director's track record.² The Korean Film Council's February 2018 tally placed the film sixth for the month with 710,000 admissions, and noted that the underperformance of Psychokinesis and other socially critical Korean films contributed to a 21.5 percent year-on-year drop in February Korean film attendance, the lowest February figure since 2010.⁸ Its final total stood at 990,104 admissions.⁴

Reception and later availability

Reviews were mixed. Common Sense Media described the film as a fun and engaging action movie whose stylized violence, offbeat humor, and creative telekinetic fight sequences set it apart from other telekinesis films, while noting its riot scenes and the death of a shopkeeper during the eviction.⁹ A Flicks review found it less fresh than Train to Busan but credited its resolutely blue-collar, for-the-people sensibility, comparing its modest scale to Chronicle and Hancock rather than Marvel and DC productions.¹⁰ The film screened in the Korean Fantastic: Features (Non-Competition) section of the 2018 Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival.⁴

After its theatrical run, Netflix released the film globally on April 25, 2018, and it has remained available on the service, classified there as a Korean sci-fi action comedy with a TV-MA rating.¹^•¹¹

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Science fiction and fantasy films (individual works) › Science fiction and fantasy films of the 2010s › Fantasy films of the 2010s

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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