Alright. This is one of those movies where explaining the plot alone completely misses why the film is so fucking good.
This is one of the most fucked up films i ever saw tbh. It's fucked not because it feature gruesome body horror neither it shows you anything which you really consider disturbing in a sense. It is disturbing because the narrative stress you out so much that it makes you curious to know what happens in the ending. It has some cool moments, it has a humor which sometimes makes the film not that deep. However, The ending of the film is where it reaches it's high; literally every camera work and direction of the film is outstanding. I'm making efforts to review this because I think it deserves more than that. Screenplay is tight, the pacing is outstanding so much more.
This is the best korean thriller I've seen in my life. This film wins in every aspect for me. After Schindler list, this is the only movie which really impacted me a deeply. How the fuck i will review this. It feels so wrong to me when films like this are so good that I want to appreciate them, but everything in this film is so flawless that not mentioning every aspect of it seems like a crime. This film needs to be appreciated, and I’ve seen many reviews of this film. People don’t try their best to appreciate a piece of art. I have always appreciated Korean films because they are pretty good at making horror and thrillers, and this movie is proof of that. It’s a masterpiece in the thriller genre for me.
Coming to the movie. How can someone make the narrative of the film so great that you know what typical thriller film is all about. The chaser plot seems to follow a similar place where a Serial killer kills women because of his impotence of not having sex with them?
Right? So basic Right? But interestingly By minute thirty, Our guy literally crashes his car into Serial killers. They fight, He is handcuffed, taken into custody, and casually confesses to murdering nine people. The central hook isn't "Who did it it’s "Can they actually legally hold him, and is the last woman still alive?
The film essentially removes the conventional "Who is the murderer?" mystery and replaces it with "Can anyone actually stop him?"
That's a much nastier question.
Because now you're not watching to discover information. You're watching because you possess the information and nobody else is doing anything useful with it.
At first we assume jung-ho is chasing Young-min. Obviously. But that's only the surface. The real chase is Jung-ho chasing time basically He's trying to find Mi-jin before Young-min kills her. this is what really chaser means in the film. In the film, Nobody in this movie is an idealized hero. Every character is deeply flawed, messy, and fundamentally human.
Kim yoon-seok's Jung-ho is fascinating because he isn't a hero, He's a pimp, He's aggressive. He's corrupt. He's selfish. He treats the women working for him as economic assets. At first, he's looking for the missing women because they're costing him money. That's important. The movie doesn't give us some saintly detective. Instead, An asshole is forced into becoming a human being. And that transformation is subtle. He doesn't suddenly become Superman. He doesn't become morally pure. He simply begins caring.
And that's much more believable.
His old police instincts gradually come back. He's observant. He's physically capable. He knows how criminals operate. He knows how police And because he's been on both sides of that.
What makes the film more fucked up to me is that in the film how the legal systems tries to protect the Serial killer even after he claimed that he killed while laughing about in their face which just shows he really doesn't care because he knows he will be saved due to lack of evidence which make it more intense. What's more fucked up is that they gave him care and hospitality to a killer. What's more fucked up is that how they wrote the character of the Serial killer in this film. He doesn't even looks Serial killer. He flirts, he makes jokes, behaves almost like a normal human will ever do. Which i liked more about the film because it cuts the traditional trope instead they really makes you believe how Serial killer really are in real life.
What's more great is that how Na hong jin made this film so realistic, grounded, subtle, less theatrical, and it's more like a documentary with intense camera works. It works because sometimes it exaggerated things but most of the times it takes some time to progress the plot.
Our guy carries the movie like he's personally being charged rent for every frame. His performance is built around physicality. Jung-ho is constantly running, sweating, shouting, breathing heavily and falling. You can almost feel his Iungs burning. And that's essential because it doesn't makes him ultimately a strong player. When he escapes from police, you don't get to see he suddenly run so fast that nobody could catched him.
The most cherry on top moment was for me is where Na Hong-jin gets absolutely fucking evil as a filmmaker. The film gives you this innocent child. And you know what the adult world is doing around her. That's the contrast; Childhood innocence vs adult corruption. Police bureaucracy. Sex work, Violence, Murder. The kid doesn't understand the machinery surrounding her. The audience does.
That's painful to see.
This is important. At first you're basically screaming to the legal systems and police which i did the same is
"BRO JUST DO YOUR FUCKING JOB."
But the film is doing something deeper.
The police aren't simply incompetent because the screenplay needs them to be. They're trapped inside procedures, hierarchy, politics, bureaucracy and institutional self-preservation. The system is designed to process information.
But processing information isn't the same as saving someone.
That's the tragedy.
Finally, The camera doesn't constantly sit safely somewhere watching the action