Genre: Crime, Action, Drama, Thriller, Suspense
Starring: Kim Yoon Seok, Ha Jeong Woo, Seo Yeong Hee, Koo Bon
Release year: 2008
Language: Korean
Subtitle: English
SYNOPSIS:Ex-cop pimp Jung Ho (Kim Yoon Seok) is irritated because his girls keep disappearing without clearing their debts. One night, he gets a call from a customer and sends Mi Jin (Seo Yeong Hee). Jung Ho realizes the phone number of the customer matches that of the calls the missing girls got last.
As something smells fishy, he searches for her. During his search, Jung Ho dents a car in the alley. When Jung Ho spots blood splattered on the driver’s shirt, he senses the man, Young Min (Ha Jeong Woo), is the suspect. After an intense chase, Jung Ho catches Young Min. But because of Jung Ho’s pretense as a cop, they are both taken to the police station.
At the station, the man bluntly confesses he has killed the missing women, and the last girl, Mi Jin, may still be alive. As the whole police force is obsessed with a random search for corpses, Jung Ho is the only one who believes Mi Jin is still alive. With only 12 hours left to detain the serial killer without a warrant, Jung Ho’s hunt begins, searching for Mi Jin entrapped in a place nobody knows.
RATING: 9.25/10Note: This movie is re-uploaded since the old links were either corrupted or dead.
REVIEW:
"Possessed of the same bloody fatalism that pulses through many a Korean crimer, and topped by Kim Yoon-suk's star-making performance as a lowlife racing to save a woman's life, "The Chaser" is a grisly serial-killer thriller that develops into a howl of outrage at the ineptitude of the system. Drawing both white-knuckle tension and moral anguish from a maddening succession of red herrings and wrong turns, Na Hong-jin's overlong but accomplished debut feature has been a runaway hit at home, and should chase down plenty of offshore bookings before its eventual U.S. remake by Warner Bros.
As written by Na (with Hong Won-chan and Lee Shin-ho also receiving scripting credits), "The Chaser" is more interested in delivering pulp satisfactions than in launching a coherent attack on Korean political authority and law enforcement. Yet the real-world implications of this sweaty-palmed genre exercise -- in which the police thwart the cause of justice at almost every turn, forcing a lowly pimp to play the hero -- are unmistakable."
.....
"Pulse-pounding third act expertly pushes the audience's buttons, to excruciatingly ironic and ultimately devastating effect. Pic does turn overwrought in the final stretch and would have been wise to end on an earlier note, though action fans won't mind.
Na directs with muscle and verve, more than fulfilling the genre's gore requirements yet, more importantly, giving the violence an uncomfortable intimacy. Tech package is excellent, from Lee Sung-je's agile widescreen lensing to the often grim interiors of Lee Min-bog's production design."
Source: Variety.com
"First of all, let me start by saying that this movie clearly is one of the best movies that I have ever seen, providing a totally different approach to a horror/ Thriller / Crime genre. What's amazing about this movie is that it lets you know who is the killer right from the start. It shows what its cards are, but it still controls the game completely from the beginning to end, without ever giving out any dully moment.
Having loved some of the recent Korean movies such as 'Memories of Murder' 'Old Boy' 'The Host' etc, I had a high expectation of this movie after a strong recommendation from my Korean friend, who advised me not to take my pregnant wife to the movie due to gory violence.
It is indeed gory, but at least the scenes stop before the actual execution of bloody things. I guess it's less violent that the Saw series.
Fantastic direction (from a rookie director), fantastic acting & a fantastic thriller. What a winner."
Source: IMDB
TRAILER:
DISC 1 - SUB
DISC 2 - SUB
