Hoa-cha

I watched this film not knowing anything about the plot. I think that was a good thing. The less you know the better in this case. If you are considering watching it, stop reading and just go, it's great. All I will tell you is that the movie is an excellent mystery thriller. While the themes can be violent or sad, it's not over the top or gratuitous. The impact comes from the way the story is revealed, piece by piece. The acting, I thought, was excellent. I only guessed one part of the mystery, otherwise the rest of the time I was glued trying to work out the answers. I know a film is good, when afterward I feel like the character were real, and this film gave me that sense of realism. A litte more character development and background would have been nice, as the pace gets going really early on. Otherwise fantastic Korean thriller that is well worth checking out.

(2012) Helpless (In South Korean with English subtitles) PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER

Adapted from the novel by Miyuki Miyabe co-written and directed by Young-Joo Byun that has a young couple, pet doctor, Jung Mun-ho engaged to be married to his fiance Kang Seon-yeong. Except that Mun-ho had plans to introduce her to his dad. And once he decides to stop by and grab a coffee, and upon him coming back to the car, she then ends up missing. Leaving with no trace of her other than a hair pin, he picked up at a nearby gas station. The next thing we know Mun-ho then goes on an obsessive rant to find her, including involving his uncle, Jong-geun a former cop. What happens next is just as baffling, which I needed to make sense to everything I saw that I needed someone to explain it to me. And just when you think there's some suspense, there isn't.

First of all, this is one of the best thrillers i have seen this year. I should say i did not move till the movie is completed.Probably the director Young-Joo Byun is one of the excellent mystery teller like agatha christie or Daphne du Maurier or Christianna Brand(Of course they are all writers). I was totally thrilled to watch this movie and came to know on information theft about credit card, house loan,insurance ...etc and identity masquerade.

Young-Joo Byun is feminist champion and took several documentary on women empowerment or suppression.

Not sure on directors view of her female lead character and her life style. It is not sure whether she approve of her lifestyle due to poverty and implying it is justifiable or condemning it.

By all means, this is a excellent movie. Being a mystery genre fan, i loved this entire movie all along. It is also sad the number of voters are less.

Found another gem.

This movie absolutely blew my mind - thrilling 2 hour Korean movie experience.

Helpless is a true "nothing is as it seems" type of mystery that takes you down the rabbit hole and never disappoints along the way. At it's core is a well organized plot that make you feel like you're investigating right alongside the characters. Their surprise is your surprise - Their dead end in is your dead end. When you think you have the missing girl all figured out, the story opens completely up and shows you exactly what you hadn't thought of. The action is both believable and unexpected, all the while making sense instead of how movies normally make you go "seriously?" As far as Korean flicks go in general, this one wasn't overly emotional. It was a GREAT watch. An intelligent mystery riddled with suspense and void of stupid mistakes. A must see for mystery lovers and Korean movie fans.