In this dark thriller, an innocent hero seeks reasons to the suicide of a TV starlet, whom he was in a romantic relationship with. All heard and known from the news is that the starlet was rumored to be seen in a late-dinner date with a member of a municipal council. Some politician that you don't want to mess up with. The tone of the thriller is set in such a mood that we don't have time to care about what does this guy do for a living, if he is not a detective?
He is not a detective, so this turns toward a sweet sour revenge. A revenge like Quentin Tarantino or Bryan Singer knew how to craft it in the '90s. The romantic kid decides to find whoever is guilty from the suicide of his girlfriend. How far he can go with that fantasy?
It is a nice challenging set-up with self-denial exams introducing new allies and new foes meanwhile. Yet, there is this major hindrance to catch up what is happening, why is happening and how is happening:
1- Characters do not look for other options 2- Characters do not have strong motivation or a good reason to be in this story 3- Characters do not have reasonable and mutual growth 4- And finally, what you see is what you guess and get: Story does not establish the film, the film becomes something else other than the promise.
Unless this is your first South-Korean action-thriller that you are watching, you will be okay with brutal fighting scenes, meaningless pain inflicting sequences, imbecile acting melodrama moments, cheap laziness in directing antagonist interactions(bad guys just stay there awaiting to be destroyed), and my favorite cheapness: Only as smart as a high-school manga. Well, guess what, the opening scene takes place when the heroes are in high school.
What you cannot find in any other action-thriller, but only in this film:
1- Trying to discover a secret via the fastest and the hardest way: Trace Manga! Track the suspects and beat them to death until they speak out who did it! "I am asking you s.o.b! Tell me who did it! Or I f.cking break your arm!". Crack! He breaks one arm. Oh no! He was innocent!
2- THE DARK TURN: Nobody knows who did it. But the more the hero seeks answers for, the more he learns that... It is a hidden top secret network, where its individuals are equal to each other; everything that is done, every news that is written, is known in the first place by no one. But the rumored secrets prompted the crime in this same first place, too. The more the hero struggles to find answers, he finds himself being part of it, and he turns his back to review his present life; that he was doing the same what it was done to him to other innocents like him.
3- The information is travelling faster than the speed of the light: Since every character engaging in the story is an employee of the news and media franchises, they cannot see the end of their actions, but we can. The use of internet in this film was nicely constructed with all the necessary reason and result synergies.
4- "Forget it Jake, it's Chinatown". This small-brain film will remind you and help you understand better the big-brain classics of all time. "Louis I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship"
5- The town is not called Chinatown or Casablanca, but the realm of the unseen corporate institutional power is much larger: "Media"
