Sung Jinwoo is an E-ranked nobody.
Ever since monster-populated dungeons started popping up in the world—each with its specific level of difficulty and value of rewards—humanity has found itself separated into levels, too.
Those mankind levels range from the lowly and barely capable E-ranked levels up to the few-and-far-between S-rankers. Those upper tier guys and gals are so brimming with power that just standing near them might leave you singed.
So that means groups of ranked humans, or “hunters,” take on the corresponding level dungeons, and this strange economy carries on. In fact, the dungeon hunter business is the business these days.
In that kill-or-be-killed underworld, Sung Jinwoo is a joke. He’s even been labeled “The Weakest Hunter.” Frankly, he would give up the hunting business altogether if he had any other means of income. But he doesn’t. And he has to care for his young sister and pay for his sick mother’s care.
However, something happens in one of his low-level dungeon raids. His group of eight hunters come upon a room filled with impossibly powerful and massive stone statutes that begin to torment and butcher the party.
In the end, a badly wounded Jinwoo acts as bait, in a sense, to allow a few of his team members to escape. He’s then attacked, dismembered, impaled, and left gushing and bleeding on something resembling a sacrificial altar.
Jinwoo’s last thought is, “If I only had one more chance.”
Remarkably, he gets it.
Sung Jinwoo wakes in a hospital bed: healthy and whole. And he soon realizes that he’s now connected to something similar to a video game system.
Little digital notices pop up before his eyes, that only he can see. They give him challenges—small at first, but then more complicated. And for each success, he gains new skills and begins to level up.
It’s unheard of. It’s impossible. But it appears that this lowly E-rank nobody suddenly has a chance to become, secretly, more powerful. He feels stronger, he looks stronger. He just has to keep jumping through the “system’s” regularly imposed hoops.
It’s probably incredibly dangerous.
But Sung Jinwoo is willing to give it his all.
Sung Jinwoo is a nice guy, especially at first. We see him sacrifice to help his family and friends when some individuals are ready to simply run away.
However, as he becomes more powerful and develops incredible skills, he also loses some of his humanity. He still cares for his sister and protects weaker hunters, but killing corrupt humans and dungeon characters becomes of little consequence to him (which, of course, is not such a good thing.)
There are others in Jinwoo’s orbit—such as his sister, Jinah—who are caring and kind. While her older brother is raiding dungeons long into the night, she lays out meals for him and tries to help all she can.
There’s nothing biblically spiritual in the story mix. But we do see a fantasy brand of magic involved with the dungeons. Mankind doesn’t know why these openings appear or why they disappear after their main boss is defeated, but the people must accept that these mystical dungeons are beyond their control.
The empowered humans have a variety of abilities. Some are magic casters and healers. Others have unexplained powers that emanate from them in waves.
Sung Jinwoo’s situation blends spiritual powers with others that seem electronic or digital. He’s given tasks through game-like messages and then swept magically off to new locations. He’s also eventually given the game-like role of “necromancer,” that comes with the ability to use mana to raise and command “shadow warrior” versions of foes he’s defeated in battle.
We see the “new and improved” Jinwoo with his shirt off, displaying his ripped physique. And women gushingly react to his more manly looks.
Solo Leveling: ReAwakening is packed to the brim with bloody violence.
Jinwoo and others take on huge beasts, such as massive spiders, bears, wolves, goblins, snakes, dragons and “god-like” stone icons in the dungeons. And each of these enormously powerful creatures tends to mulch and tear average humans into bloody pulp. The dead often lie scattered about in deep pools of gore with ripped-off limbs; crushed and broken bodies; and gouged-out eyes.
But the more disturbing visuals tend to be delivered through human-on-human violence that involves hacking, slashing and gouging torments. We see people tortured, paralyzed and poisoned. They vomit blood and gore. Heads and limbs get lopped off with sharp blades. And the powered-up Jinwoo is repeatedly slashed, slammed around and left bleeding from cuts all over his body.
Eventually, Jinwoo gains the ability to raise a shadow army filled with armored knights, huge ice bears and other powerful creatures. These battles morph into frenetic and tremendously bloody events as these battlers clash with scores of other incredibly powerful foes.
[This anime film is presented in Japanese with English subtitles or dubbed in English. We screened the Japanese with English subtitles version. Please note that the English-dubbed version of this film may contain slightly different language than the subtitled version.]
Subtitles include six uses of the s-word and several exclamations each of “a–,” “d–n,” “b–tard” and “h—.”
Sung Jinwoo drinks beer with his meal.
We eventually discover that the truly powerful hunters tend to be heartless and often incredibly cruel individuals. In fact, one powerful individual declares outright that the “natural selection” which made him super powerful “supersedes morals.” “If you gaze long into the abyss,” someone says. “The abyss gazes back into you.”
In that light, we see several instances where powerful individuals use their increased strength to betray and physically torment people who were trusting them. One hunter reveals his joy in torturing humans, for instance. It’s stated that the new world of dungeons has become a “world filled with violence, deception and betrayal.”
The goal of Solo Leveling: ReAwakening is pretty straightforward: to condense the story of the first season of the Japanese/Korean anime series it’s based on, and then treat fans to the first two episodes of the second season.
Not only do the creators hope to get fans into the theater and make some extra cash, but they also hope to stir up excitement for the series’ forthcoming Season 2.
Of course, whittling down some six hours of storyline into about an hour of screentime is no easy feat. And frankly, those viewers who don’t know this anime series will be completely lost in the first half of the movie.
That first chunk is still lightning-paced, dynamic and visually impressive, to be sure. That’s what this series is known for. But it will be confusing for the uninitiated.
The other thing that both fans and the uninitiated will have to cope with is the storyline’s content. This is a tale of an incredibly underpowered guy who’s given an unprecedented chance to gain great ability if he’s got the unwavering grit to face down powerful foes and wade through the gory results.
In that context, this film is gushing with spilled blood, sliced off limbs, lopped heads and savage murder. And in addition, its language can be foul as well. (Of course, in the subtitled version you don’t hear the profanity but read it.)
Solo Leveling: ReAwakening, then, is a film that delivers exactly what it promises. We get a blisteringly intense and brisk recap; visually dynamic graphics; and all the violence, goop and foul language that fans of the anime series have come to expect.
Anyone just accidentally wandering in, however, could be unpleasantly surprised. Or at the very least, they’ll likely leave wishing they’d taken time to read this review.
After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.
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