The Chaser

Wow! I caught wind of this through a magazine review and checked it out and was very glad I did. Some of the great stuff coming out of South Korea will blow your mind and this is no exception. The references people made to this movie being in the caliber of Oldboy and Memories of Murder are well substantiated but I would liken it more to Memories of Murder and not quite in the same league as Oldboy. The only movie in league with Oldboy is Seven. While the plot kind of reminded me of some of the classic 80s and 90s psycho-killer thrillers we have had come out of the US, it does hold up well on its own for being a foreign film. Not the most original plot but a decent twist on it nonetheless. Nothing in the plot or sequence of events stood out as unbelievable and there are some real gripping scenes that'll make you white-knuckle. There are some good character developments and reversals that I enjoyed as we see our main character, a former cop turned pimp, trying to find the guy who's been killing his girls and coming to grips with his personal responsibilities and justice. I don't want to give away the plot other than that as it would detract from your enjoyment. It does burn a little slow after the first 20 minutes of the movie as we see events unfold so be prepared for the reward in the last 30 minutes of the movie as the sequence of events crescendo. I'll be keeping an eye on this great director.

¨I killed them.¨ After reading several blogs about the best Korean films I decided to watch Hong-jin Na's film, The Chaser. Korea is making some great films in this decade, but I wouldn't consider The Chaser to be among their best. I had some issues with this movie, although it still left me with some great impressions. My favorite thriller of all time is Seven, and this film had a feeling similar to it, especially with the dark setting. It is a different kind of thriller because in the first 20 minutes the protagonist has already managed to catch the serial killer. The thrills come once the serial killer is interrogated by the police officers who show their complete ineptness to solve the case even when the killer has admitted his crimes. The problem is that the police officers aren't able to find the bodies and have no evidence other than his testimony to accuse him in trial. They have only 12 hours to discover the whereabouts of the bodies before they have to set him free. Why isn't his testimony enough? Because the killer is acting like a lunatic who doesn't know what he's saying. The thriller almost turns into a comedy after watching the complete ineptness of the police officials. That is where the film lost me a little bit, because it goes a little too far with this issue that Hong-jin Na is trying to point out: Korean officials are completely inept and incapable of solving a crime that has been placed right before their eyes. The crime seems like a simple one to solve, there are leads they can follow all over the place, but they keep on screwing up and get nowhere. I did however like the twist near the end of the film that you would probably never see in a Hollywood film because it's just way too dark.

Joong-ho (Yun-seok Kim) is a pimp who is worried about his business because some of his work girls have disappeared. He believes that they've left him, but what he doesn't know is that there is a serial killer who has been killing them off one by one. After realizing that his last girl left the cell phone in his car, he begins to believe that someone is kidnapping his girls and selling them abroad. He goes back and retraces the number of the person who solicited the girls when they last disappeared and realizes they all come from the same number. When the serial killer, Young-min (Jung-woo Ha), calls again he sends another girl and orders her to give him the man's address once she arrives at his place. Why? Because the killer always asks the girls to pick him up at a random location and then has them drive him to his place. The problem is that when Mi-jin Kim (Yeong-hie Seo) arrives at Young-min's house there is no signal and she can't send the message. The pimp doesn't know the exact address of the house, but he knows the whereabouts because that is where the last girl had left his car and he finds Mi-jin's vehicle there too. Young-min kills his victims by hammering some sort of stake to their head and barely hits Mi-jin with it before he is interrupted by a couple who are searching for the owner of the house. This is where we realize that Young-min has been operating from someone else's home and has to kill the visitors as well. Before burying the victims, Young-min decides to get rid of their vehicle and that is when he crashes into Joong-ho's vehicle and he discovers that he's the man he's looking for. Joong-ho beats him up and the police officers intervene and that is where the search for the bodies begins.

Some of the problems I had with the plot beside the fact that the ineptness of the police officers was greatly exaggerated (but I guess that the director succeeded in trying to point this out) was that there were too many bad decisions made by Joong-ho and too many coincidences. First of all he lets the girl go to this man's place without following them, then he accidentally crashes into his vehicle (a great coincidence here), then he goes around driving everywhere in the car that should've been in the police's hands after the accident. That car should've been their most important lead, trying to figure out who it belonged to and what Young-min was doing with it. The only person who investigates this is Joong-ho and he isn't thorough enough. Then near the end of the film there are several plot holes as well but I don't want to spoil anything for the viewers. Everything I've discussed before happens in the first twenty minutes of the film. There are just too many coincidences that take place and they felt really forced at times. The thriller does work however as a dark and violent one, and it leaves you haunted by some of the things that happen. Some of the images stay with you long after the credits begin to roll. I did enjoy this thriller, I just don't think it is amongst the best Korean films considering there are so many great ones.

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Korean cinema does it again. "The Chaser" is another great movie from the Korean film stable. The plot stems around an amoral ex-cop turned pimp who after losing some of his "working girls" decides to track down and find the client behind this. He ends up finding himself involved in more than he bargained for, with the client being a serial killer, and its then a chase to find his last girl sent to him whilst the police also try to pin him down but are hampered by legal red tape and politics.

As you'd expect from a Korean film from the cop thriller genre it can be very violent, and there's no denying that for this film, however thankfully it doesn't overshadow the rest of the movie. The chase is on, and the roller coaster of emotions following the pimp and the cops trying to stop the serial killer is nothing less than gripping, watching them go from one success to despair in short spaces of time. The tension is high and will tug on you right to the end.

Importantly there is a lot of humour. The main character (Joong-ho Eom) is incredibly dry-witted, and is a release valve for the tension in the film. As he carries the film, the acting is important, and both he and the serial killer are exceptionally good. Can't argue with either or even the general ensemble.

There is possibly an American re-make in the offing. Fair enough I guess as that's become the norm now, but I hope it doesn't dilute the central story or the action. This film is a great gem, and follows on from some of the other greats in the genre such as "Memories of a Murder" which is a classic. It will unsettle but for an intelligent thriller, it really is up there with the best in the past few years.

What a movie. When I rented this movie I didn't know what to expect. It is usually is a hit or miss for Korean movies but this was a grand slam out of the park type of movie. The film is about a former detective turn pimp trying to catch a serial killer who is killing his prostitutes. It's a big cat and mouse game between the two throughout the whole movie. The plot sounds thin but there is so much more than what meets the eye. This is one of the best thriller/serial killer movies I have ever seen and I don't want to say too much about the plot because it is very edge of your seat kind of stuff. The film never drags and it becomes more intriguing the more you watch and you feel like you know the character because the actors portray them so well. This is a very violent and gruesome film that shouldn't be viewed by the squeamish even though there isn't that many bloody scenes for being a serial killer movie. The movie achieves so much more with less, which hardly ever works in films that need violence to be a success. I wish that Hollywood or even European films would have the brass to make a film this unique and daring at the same time. The thing that this film has going for it the most is that it's wonderfully erratic. You can never guess what is going to happen next and that is the reason why Korean movies are so fantastically entertaining. I rank this movie in my top three greatest thriller/serial killer movies of all time somewhere between "Seven" and "Silence of the Lambs". The characters of this film really flesh out the story and let you jump right in. I can't help but stress the point that this film is very unpredictable and the style of the story telling is subtle but very effective. This film is a sure bet and you will not leave disappointed.

This is most probably the best Asian movies that i have ever seen. I did not expect much when i went to watch the movie but boy was i wrong. I was fully satisfied with this film because it had everything. The movie had suspense, action and abit of humour put into it The hero in this movie did not look like the hero that everyone is used to, he is rude,total disregard of other people's feeling and most of all he is selfish and only thinks about money and himself.But as we go along through this movie, we discover that he does have a conscience and goes out one of the girls he sent to the maniacal and psychotic killer in the movie.

The cast in the movie gave a solid and believable performance especially ha jung woo as the villain in this movie.He showed no remorse or feel any guilt in killing those people.Overall this movie is great and if you like to watch any Asian movie, than this should be the one for you