A good example of a film grabbing the audience by the collar, only for the audience to shake themselves free, The Chaser is a promising fusion of detective thrills, sweaty-palmed horror, and black comedy that ultimately does not hang together.
First time writer/director Na bases his story on the shocking true events of a Korean serial killer who murdered and ate his call-girl victims, and has the right elements for a great movie: atmospheric visuals reminiscent of David Fincher at his green-tinged gloomiest, compelling performances, moral conundrums, and suspense scenes worthy of Hitchcock.
Kim Yun-seok is fantastic as ex-cop Joong-ho, operating a failing escort agency whose girls are mysteriously disappearing.
After some investigation Joong-ho goes looking for prime suspect Young-min (Ha), but only after unwittingly sending the fragile Mi-jin (Seo) into his lair.
With Young-min arrested and confessing to the murders, the case seems closed. But lack of evidence and Young-min’s address being hundreds of miles away from the killings, plus an embarrassing slip-up involving police protection of the mayor, mean the PD needs to find the bodies or the psycho walks.
When The Chaser is good it’s great. Joong-ho’s chance happening across Young-min as the killer is attempting to dispose of a victim’s car is an audacious suspense set-piece, while Mi-jin's realisation that Young-min’s bathroom is a torture chamber is a perfectly judged sequence of escalating panic.
Kim smartly moves Joong-ho’s pimp from bullying low-life to someone chasing redemption, in the form of Mi-jin (a broken, yet resilient performance from Seo) and her daughter, who he begrudgingly adopts to shadow him on the case.
As the cocksure loony, Ha's character is cut from the same bloody cloth as Dirty Harry’s Scorpio or Hannibal Lecter, refusing to elicit sympathy no matter how much the bumbling flatfoots torture him.
Yet all this good work is undone by a manipulative script that revels in undermining expectations, taking one step too far with a third-act scene of violence that leaves the nagging suspicion Na is merely proving how clever and cruel he can be.
Korean audiences familiar with the real-life case may have been prepared for this incredibly bleak twist, but those coming to this cold will see just another thriller with heavy-duty hammer violence where a sense of compassion should be.
A rare example of a movie that will benefit from a tamer remake.
Rob Daniel
6:10PM, Sep 01, 2008
