■Title: "The Chaser"
■Director: Luo Hongjin
■Release Date: February 14, 2008 (Korea)
■Reader: Europa
■Recommendation Index: ★★★★★☆
■One sentence comment: 1 An anti-climax, anti-genre thriller and crime-themed film that breaks the convention, full of surprises, and black to the end.
In the past year, Chinese audiences’ attention to Korean films has fallen into a trough, just as there will be no more amazingly good films in this country-even if there are, they will not come so soon. "The Chaser" is about a perverted serial killer. The genre is not uncommon, and it is a bit like a classic. Under a lot of impossible conditions, it is like a new born calf, creating a box office miracle abruptly. Based on this alone, the film is worth writing.
Recommend to no less than ten friends to watch, regardless of men and women, beginners or advanced, all applauded and reflected. The evaluation terms basically revolve around the categories of "tension to catch people", "exciting hot", and "good rhythm". The advantage of "Chaser" lies in this. The threshold of the film is very low, and it is not an exaggeration to watch it as a general thriller. It is even more fun to enjoy the thrill of hunting down the murderer. As a result, the audience also fell into the trap early. The core of the story is "pursuing", but it is not a wise policeman or a brave man who accomplishes this act. He is just a guy described as a "scum" by his call girl. As for the murderer's side, a little white face is unremarkable, without superfluous expressions, and IQ is not high. Using a blunt tool such as a hammer will cause problems. It is not difficult to see that this character setting is different from most Hong Kong and Hollywood genre films. Compared with "The Seven Deadly Sins", "Zodiac", and "Memories of Murder", we can clearly discover the uniqueness of "The Chaser" charm.
Since there can be no murderer, let the murderer show up early. Since criminals with high IQ can commit crimes seamlessly, let the police make mistakes. Since it could have been a household name and conveyed a sense of history, it would simply go the other way and pierce reality. The story of "The Chaser" does not follow the ordinary people's imagination. The "scum" finds that the girls under her have disappeared one after another, and decides that some guy is doing a ghost, and decides to teach them a lesson. Just half an hour later, he had a face-to-face encounter with the murderer and started the first round of pursuit. Premature encounters and premature uniforms are completely unreasonable. Soon, the defeated police appeared, as far as a single police officer, as large as the entire system, and collectively incompetent. They are busy solving the farce of the mayor's dung spilling. Two emergencies are put together and the problem arises. In short, there was no evidence for 12 hours, and the public's attention could not be diverted. The "headless" police actually let go of the murderer.
Here, the intention of the movie could not be more obvious. It was not a simple white-faced murderer who killed Meizhen, let alone an indifferent "scum". Everything was harmed by the incompetence of the police. Incompetence is not only inaction. The many rules, system flaws and even the policewoman who followed the suspect to the convenience store are part of the incompetence. The scope of incompetence can extend to the fact that Xiaobailian was stabbed with impotence, the "scum" discovered in his conscience could not save the life of a weak woman, and there are even audiences who have witnessed bloody violent catharsis but are helpless. All in all, a human tragedy that occurred in an incompetent society.
"The Chaser" ignores how the murderer went astray, why the "scum" left the police force to engage in the pimp business, and the previous living conditions of the victim Mei Zhen and her daughter. The omission of the narrative compresses the story in one day, forming a powerful plot appeal, so that the audience has no extra breathing time. Correspondingly, the film adds the emotional connection between the "scum" and the little girl, and slightly expresses the murderer's past and ugly taste, which meets the needs of different levels.
Strictly speaking, there are many loopholes in the screenwriting of "The Chaser", but the reality is full of many absurd mistakes, and the film cannot be demanded to be zero faults. There are always invisible reasons that push the plot to the direction arranged by the director. "The Chaser" chooses the common rainy night that washes the soul. The rainy night has a special meaning in the movie about the perverted serial killer. It is not purely to increase the sense of mystery, but the murderer likes to choose the rainy night to haunt, and has an inexplicable pleasure. Unexpectedly, the film chose indoor scenes as the final settlement location, thereby reducing the possibility of any exaggeration (such as faces washed by rain) and giving the murderer a chance to counterattack. Only at this point, the result is no longer important. The hammer that was not smashed, accompanied by a silent shout of protest, fell on the hearts of the audience.
The darkest night, the dim light.
Like many people’s afterthoughts, I certainly think that "Chaser" can be better. For example, at the end, whether you hit the hammer or hit the mayor, you can collect it more compactly and powerfully. But as far as the current level of excitement is concerned, the film is good enough. This is only the director's first feature film.
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Korean films ushered in 2008 in the downturn. Unexpectedly, until April, there are many bright spots on the overall trend chart. Compared with 2007, two films have achieved great results and passed the mark of 4 million movie viewers. Among them, "The Most Wonderful Moment of My Life" has some light of the Olympic year. The inspirational theme of women's handball is inspiring, and it is right for the taste of Koreans. In contrast, as a dark horse, "The Chaser" can be handed down by word of mouth, which seems invaluable. Low-cost, it overcomes many disadvantages: such as the unfavorable schedule, February to March is not a popular schedule; the "18 ban" classification will inevitably cause the loss of the audience; the main creators are generally well-known, resulting in not many people sending it in advance. With high hopes, after all, there were a lot of Korean films that were buried during the bubble.
The story of "The Chaser" can remind people of "Memories of Murder" for the first time. It is also about the theme of serial killings. It is also adapted from real characters and historical events, and even their box office numbers are similar. But unlike the atypical ending of "Memories of Murder" where the murderer was not captured and the blame for the historical era, the murderer of "Chaser" showed up early and even had no regrets. The man named Ji Youngmin is based on Yoo Young-cheol, who was convicted in 2004, and the heinous crime he committed made a sensation in South Korea. Due to the psychological distortions caused by the poor family situation since childhood, he was arrested after killing 20 people for his inferiority. The last murder case involved the masseuse he hated, and the person who reported him was the owner of the massage parlor.
It can be said that Liu Yongzhe is an unforgivable crime of dismembering and destroying the body and arson, but he actually threatened to kill at least 100 people if he does not receive the death penalty (the person has a record of a mental disorder), and his desire to die is chilling. This case sparked intense and extensive discussion, but the content was mostly lashings at him. "The Chaser" borrows the shell of the event and discards the miscellaneous details. The murderer is the murderer, and there is no extra space for supplementation. The director said that no matter what the intention is, murder is unforgivable.
If the bloody violence is highly exaggerated and the sensational effect is pursued, then the Yoo Yongzhe incident will be the Korean version of "Doctor Lamb". It is necessary to dig deeper into the theme. The jewels of "Vengeance Is Me" and "Memories of Murder" have long been ahead. Even so, "Chaser" still achieved good success, and even the copyright of the remake was bought by Hollywood in the first place. Some people will say that many Korean film scripts have long been in the hands of Americans, but very few are attached to practice. Warner Bros.’s $1 million is not a waste of water. The success of "The Chaser" on the script proves that there are still Korean movies that can get rid of the sorrow of being locked in prison.
The film focuses on character creation, highlighting new ideas. The murderer confessed to the murder without remorse, the police pretended to do nothing, and the life and death of the last victim were ignored. Only Yan Zhonghao, the owner of the massage shop, took over and pursued her for survival. In order to get closer to the traditional police and gangster model, Zhonghao's character background is set to be a criminal policeman, which seems to be impartial and fills the necessary sense of justice. But as a pragmatist, his starting point is more to retrieve the masseuse as a profit tool. Zhonghao is not a traditional civilian hero, and the pursuit involves his interests. This balances the deviation of the role setting and does not tilt the scale of value to either side of the chase.
On the whole, the story of "Chaser" can still be classified as a genre of police and criminals, but it breaks the traditional mode of explaining the ins and outs, condensing time in a thrilling night, and the whole process is a sense of urgency to race against time. A chase full of suspense, no end, an indispensable heavy rain, you chase me in the laneway chase, "Chaser" can always bring the effect of turning around inadvertently. In this story, the influence of the police is eliminated, and such information is unintentionally disclosed. In this modern society where everyone is at risk, ordinary people hope that the police can protect their safety. However, Zhonghao's search is more of a kind of questioning, who really cares about the low-level victims who have no status.
Once the ending as the finishing touch is revealed here, many people will definitely hate me, and the key plots are also mentioned as few as possible. Today, how to treat a serial murder case, "Chaser" will provide you with a new perspective. If "Memories of Murder" is to open up a new realm in the world of genre films, then "Chaser" is a successful mutation. There is no Freudian theory or the pain of the era of social transformation in the film, and some are just thrilling from beginning to end.
The low-budget "Chaser" was an unprecedented success, and the remake paid for the producer to make a fortune. But what is happier is Ha Jung Woo, who has embarked on the path of becoming a box office actor-even if he is playing a negative role. The meaning of "Chaser" to Ha Zhengyu is the same as Cao Chengyou's success in "Marathon." Scorsese said that he has the potential to become Matt Damon or DiCaprio. There is a polite element in the good words, but his future is really not to be underestimated.
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