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Ani.me writes on 'Priest' for Korean-Content.com

The setting is the wild west. The United States has yet to be fully settled and all around you dust is being blown up into the air as wooden buildings barely stand together. In this particular town though, there's more than just dust being stirred up. Up ahead there is a wall of zombies stretching out for rows and rows. Standing in front of them is a lone man in a long coat. In both hands are large guns and a sick smirk crosses his lips. This is about to get very bloody.

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Oh yeah, we're talking about Priest.

With all of the attention that Japan gets for its anime and manga, it's easy to forget that just across the Sea of Japan is the small peninsula country of South Korea with its own vibrant manhwa scene. For almost the last 10 years, lovers of graphic violence and zombies in the US have been flocking to the title created by Min-Woo Hyung for its compelling story and rampant bloodshed.

It all starts with main character, Ivan Isaacs, accidentally unsealing a fallen archangel. After being freed, Isaacs is forced to watch as the love of his life, Gena, is killed and he is crucified for the sin. Forsaken by God, Isaacs sells his soul to another evil spirit from Hell to be given immortality and the ability to kill the evil deities he seeks vengence against. For hundreds of years he's killed and survived into the frontier west. Now he travels from place to place in search of those who took what was most important to him.

Gaining fans every year, Priest has taken on a life of its own and has been a flagship title for Tokyopop since they released the first volume in 2002. Presently though, Priest is still going strong in the form of a brand new live action movie set to be released later this year starring Paul Bettany (A Beautiful Mind) playing the warrior priest and a complete series re-release in 8 Ultimate Editions from Tokyopop which concluded just a few weeks ago.

The movie, set for a May 13th release date (in both 2D and 3D), takes place in a world that has been consumed by a war between humans and vampires. Now walking the world alone, Priest comes out of the shadows when he learns that his neice has been kidnapped by a band of vampires who want to make her one of them. Joined by her boyfriend, a local sheriff named Hicks and other vampire hunters along the way, Priest begins his quest to find his missing neice and deliver judgement on the condemned.

While Priest may not promise a completely faithful adaptation of the manhwa, it does promise a good time filled with swords, bullets, vampires and maybe even a little blood. In the spirit of "Ninja Assassin" or "Blood: The Last Vampire", this is a movie that will be the most fun when you're in the mood for mindless violence that isn't being bogged down by things like writing and story. If there is any justice in the world, there will be blood and it will gloriously cover every surface and it will be beautiful. If you haven't already made plans to check this out at your local theater in May, it's not too late to be saved. Just give yourself over to this movie and you too can find salvation.

Manhwa images copyright Tokyopop.

This post was created in collaboration with our friends at Ani.me

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