The Terror Live

I saw this few days back. Was on my radar for a long time.

Well, we have seen much better movies with a bit similar theme, Phone Booth, A Wednesday, The Taking of Pelham 123, Speed, Man on a Ledge, Cellular, The Call, etc but this doesn't have that kinda shocking end.

Nonetheless it is a bearable thriller with enuff energy.

The budget is low n it is very evident by the effects n some of the scenes of the bridge collapsing are shown via television to hide the budget.

Statutory warning: avoid the Bollywood unofficial remake like plague.

I have been waiting for this movie for sometime now,and my expectations were high.They were almost satisfied.

This is another one of the movies that everything happens in a small room/location and the film rarely leaves out of that.

Still the suspense is enough to keep you going.

Yeong-hwa Yoon, played beautifully by Jung-woo Ha, is a radio producer demoted(in lack of a better word) from national news anchorman.During his early show in radio he receives a call from a man , that claims he will bomb a nearby bridge.When the bridge explodes and everyone understands there was no prank call the wheels get in motion and what follows is a nice thriller.

Whereas the above plot is good,I would call for some changes during the middle of the film where you might get slightly bored.But the end will definitely make up for it.I promise you that!

The acting is very good and made me feel it was all happening in reality.

You will see few CG generated animations but this movie needs no more.

An excellent film overall,and I rated this so high due to the ending which I loved.If you like this genre then definitely watch this.Even if you don't, watch it,and you might get surprised.

The Terror Live (2013) : Brief Review -

The Terror Live is misfired at occasions but throws its big bombs perfectly at corrupt system and disloyal media. I am not a big fan of Korean cinema but i have loved watching major classics made there. Maybe that's why i expect every acclaimed/known Korean film to be damn sensible and intellectual and may be that's why The Terror Live seemed like a gun, misfired at some places. The film is close to 'real time thriller' term but as we progress with the characters, we start getting those regular vibes. A newsman discovers he's been rigged with a bomb after he has an exclusive interview with a terrorist who blew up a bridge. The story has a simple demand that the audience should stick to it for 95 minutes and if that's okay for you then this one is not a waste of time at all. I tried to think about the motive of the film and i realised that it was very important. But then i see what changes have we seen after that in system, politicians and media who are still walking corrupted with no fear of any sort? Then did the film really succeed to send a message? It has.. but i guess people are not interested about it after finishing those 90 minutes of viewing. So all that important topic and stuff I was talking about goes in vain. The film fails to match its own intelligence by making false promises at the beginning, however, i liked the point when it tries to find a new motive after losing that promised one. The performances and technical aspects are excellent. It keeps you on edge of your seats and it's quite possible that you might just end up bitting nails by the time it ends. It's true that a better writing would have made it a classic thriller and i had to say that it misses the tag by some noticeable distance. Nevertheless, it still worths every second of your watch time so don't miss it. I'm going with half-a-star extra only for attempting to do something different from mainstream filmmaking.

RATING - 7/10*

By - #samthebestest.

"The Terror Live" is one prime example of how to make a riveting thrilling film seated in just one room. All the drama and action unfold inside one studio room where a news anchor is forced by a terrorist to fulfill his needs else he will blow up a bridge (which he actually does once to send his message out clear).

1.5 hrs and not a single dull moment. Performances by the lead is especially great. The ending kind of leaves you emotional. It leaves you thinking.

However, it is not perfect hence i reduced 2 stars. First, in the entire 1 hour there is no bomb squad which was talked about. Second, the entire story gets predictable very soon thanks to the terrorist revealing "why" he was doing such a thing. Third, never seen a police chief as dumb as the one shown in the film. A lot of events just happen without any reason which leaves several audience questions unanswered.

Nevertheless, this film is definitely for you if you love single room thrillers and if you can ignore the negatives.

A pretty entertaining, tense thriller. My favorite thing about it was how the main character was sleazy and pretty unlikeable, though you still sympathized with his predicament. It started to get a bit silly and over-the-top by the end unfortunately. Korean films continue to be hard hitting and brutal in execution and style compared to American films, and this is most effective in movies like these.