Haven't written for quite some time, but after I saw this gem of a Korean movie, just felt so compelled to write so here I am. This is one good movie! Whether it's taken as a cop movie, a movie of redemption, a sarcastic look into the Korean police system, this movie excels in all departments! I was kept glued to my seat right from the beginning when one of Joong-Ho a cop turned pimp goes in search of the person he suspects of selling his girls. Check that out for the part of the protagonist. The movie brings you on the ride as Joong-Ho tracks down the killer and arrests him, but all is not over ...
With a lead role like that one could have easily gotten it wrong by either making the switch of caring pimp to hero either too easy making it unbelievable, but here I bought it totally. Given the background of of Joong-Ho and his relationship with his girls and the relationship he builds with with Mi-Jin's daughter his transition from bad-pimp cop to the only cop capable to bring down the killer is deliciously good. The normal dependable police department here is seen to spot a clown's mask and there is even a scene during interrogation of the main suspect one of the policeman is standing on top of a desk in his pagodas!
The pace here is tight and the pace frantic as Joong-Ho unrelentlessly finds his target battling his cops ex buddies getting to his man ... not giving anything away just to say the climax of the show might be too devastating for some (it nearly was for me) ... The final fight scene while nothing as fanciful as Jackie's romps is some one the most memorable one for me. I nearly wanted to jump out of my seat and help Joong-Ho deliver the killing blow! Trust me, no matter how hardened you are on the US action movies just watch this last fight scene and tell me you feel nothing. I went in to it that way and I found myself wanting to participate in the last fight! That is how good it is! Kudos to the powerful action sequences. For the squeamish among you, you might want to give those last few scenes a miss as it gets really painfully bloody to watch. Here the excitement is not so much watching the choreography rather these are real action sequences and something you would expect to happen in real situations.
Also, here I would like to add I really enjoyed how the direction of the movie seems to challenge the audience about the stereotypical ending and proceedings of events in the movie. Everything from events happening to even the main characters themselves. The killer once caught initially appears to be this mild mannered good looking young guy who wouldn't or couldn't even hurt a fly given the chance, and at a lot of points the audience is sort of left wondering if this could be the killer while the protagonist in this movie is a good hearted pimp. The message that heroes in this day and age are flawed individuals who chooses to do the right thing effectively sent here and never heavy handedly shoved down our throats instead the situations presented here forces the audience to re-evaluate the role of hero and villain. This 'encouragement' of the audience to think outside of normal stereotypes kept me constantly on the edge my seat and elevated the movie from a normal cop or cat and mouse movie.
Reminisce of oldboy the cinematography here is beautiful but has a certain bleakness to it which beautifully accentuates the main characters plight and fight. It's great. Checking on imdb, the director Hong-Jin Na has another show in pre-production called Yellow Sea. I will be eagerly waiting to check that out. The Chaser has made me a fan!
Check out the trailer !
Easily ... 4.5 out of 5 stars!
No comments:
Post a Comment