Verjährung

This is my first review after rating thousands of movies. I'm very found of Korean movies after watching Oldboy several years ago. However, this is not a mainstream Korean movie, at least not in countries like Greece. Mont-ta-joo is a surprise for me since it is not as popular as other Korean movies (oldboy, memories of a murder, madeo etc.) but it is a great movie!

The plot of the movie is ingenious with several upsets and with great acting (and not overacting). During the whole movie I could not take my eyes from the TV, trying to realize who could the kidnapper be. This is not just another kidnapping movie; it presents the drama of the victim and her agony, while it reveals slowly evidence about the conclusion of the case keeping tension at high levels during the whole movie. It also presents the investigators of the case as real people making mistakes and being affected by the victims.

One thing that surprise me about movies coming out of South Korea is the huge amount of revenge movies there are. It's not a handful of movies, there are dozens of movies. I think maybe half the South Korean movies I have seen have some sort of revenge theme.

This movie is riveting and like a murder mystery it sets all the pieces in places so that can pick them up and examine them.

Even then though, when you think you know what's going on there's a dawning realization that you've been wrong as the plot comes to fruition and the real truth comes to light.

It's a great movie with a magic ending and well worth the watch.

I am so happy that I watched this movie ...

Not only just the great story, great acting, and great directing. This movie somehow move you at some point. I was blown away by how this story well written and put some message in it. At the end I was shed a tears and share deep feeling with main character when she hugged the tree and call her daughter's name as well as when the kidnapper told his story. I mean WOW ... some movie like this is very rare ... so you should see it for yourself.

I praised the writer ... director and actors ... to bring the gems into cinema. BRAVO

Nobody does thrillers like the Korean, nobody. If there is a god (it doesn't) he gave a full list of plot twists to Korean people to use it fo 400 years.

It had been a long time since I have seen such a well rounded thriller, where motives are not cliché and predictive. The acting jives extremely well with the dialog (albeit I watched with sub-titles) and the actors were awesome.

The mother's acting was so realistic that in empathizing with her, a layer of understanding is added to the storyline. The story neatly makes a subtle point about the similarity in human motives, and how where you stand in relation to it, determines your perception.

The use of time is very interesting in this movie, like an origami. It starts as a plain paper (linear), but takes on elaborate form. There are a couple of movies where this technique has been used, but in this case, the time/origami texture is seamless.

I am sure the above description might sound abstract and arcane, but if you watch the movie, you will understand what I mean. :)

A gripping and intelligent thriller, a must see.