When it comes to thrillers, no film industry around the world has done even half as great a job as Cinema of South Korea has since the dawn of this new millennium. Inspired from a real-life Korean serial killer, The Chaser tells the story of an ex-detective turned pimp whose girls have been disappearing lately without clearing their debts, leading to financial losses in his business. While tracking back, he finds out that all girls had vanished after meeting the same client whom one of his girls is meeting right now & decides to find him before it's too late, not knowing that the client he is dealing with is a sadistic psychopath.
For a film that presents such an expert level of craftsmanship in nearly every filmmaking department, it's even more surprising to find out that this is director Na Hong-jin's debut effort. He has filmed it amazingly well, kept it very grounded & emotionally layered, portrayed imperfect characters perfectly & retained the story's cruel intensity from start to finish. The screenplay also deserves a praise for the little humour its writers were able to infuse in the film's appalling nature. Cinematography & editing set an ideal tone for its plot and the performances by its cast is very impressive, sturdy & spectacular.
By approaching the story as realistically as possible & paying extra attention to small details that most films skip over, The Chaser effortlessly manages to avoid falling into its genre's clichés. And for a film that has 'chaser' in its title, it's astonishing & heartwarming to see how brilliantly those chase sequences are executed by not giving in to silliness like absence of fatigue, leaping over a 10-foot wall etc. On an overall scale, The Chaser is a deeply unsettling, mercilessly violent & unflinchingly brutal cinema from South Korea that paints a disturbing portrait of a serial killer while also making a subtle statement against the jurisdiction and, in my opinion, is one of the finest thrillers ever made.
A genre masterpiece. Not for the easily distressed. Strongly recommended.
Ful review at: cinemaclown.wordpress.com
For a film that presents such an expert level of craftsmanship in nearly every filmmaking department, it's even more surprising to find out that this is director Na Hong-jin's debut effort. He has filmed it amazingly well, kept it very grounded & emotionally layered, portrayed imperfect characters perfectly & retained the story's cruel intensity from start to finish. The screenplay also deserves a praise for the little humour its writers were able to infuse in the film's appalling nature. Cinematography & editing set an ideal tone for its plot and the performances by its cast is very impressive, sturdy & spectacular.
By approaching the story as realistically as possible & paying extra attention to small details that most films skip over, The Chaser effortlessly manages to avoid falling into its genre's clichés. And for a film that has 'chaser' in its title, it's astonishing & heartwarming to see how brilliantly those chase sequences are executed by not giving in to silliness like absence of fatigue, leaping over a 10-foot wall etc. On an overall scale, The Chaser is a deeply unsettling, mercilessly violent & unflinchingly brutal cinema from South Korea that paints a disturbing portrait of a serial killer while also making a subtle statement against the jurisdiction and, in my opinion, is one of the finest thrillers ever made.
A genre masterpiece. Not for the easily distressed. Strongly recommended.
Ful review at: cinemaclown.wordpress.com