An agent that has become a pimp, Women that disappear and a serial killer are the ingredients for The Chaser, a South Korean crime thriller. Joong-ho (Yun-seok Kim) runs an escort company and notices that a couple of the women he is using are not coming back. When he sends one of his girls, Mi-jin (Yeong-hie Seo), to a customer he finds out that he has sent her to the same customer the other girls went after they disappeared. He decides to track him down as he’s worried about Mi-jin. He managed to find him (a role excellently played by Jung-woo Ha), but there is no trace of the woman. When both of them are arrested it’s the start of an exciting search for the missing woman in a race against the clock.
Joong-ho has to use his police knowledge (and ex-colleagues) to find out what happened to Mi-jin and where she might be. He also has to take care of Mi-Jin’s daughter, which adds an extra layer of emotion to the proceedings. Meanwhile the police has a suspect who seems to be confessing about everything, but no proof that he’s actually telling the truth.
Just like some other Korean crime thrillers it’s not a film for those with a weak stomach as the film has a couple of extremely violent scenes. Those to me were the scenes that pulled me into it, hoping that this monster of man will be caught. As you are watching it, you actually want to have revenge and it’s that exact reason which makes the ending so powerful and gripping.
The Chaser felt like a movie that also could have been made in Hollywood. It reminded of movies like Cape Fear and Fracture. Warner Bros also seemed impressed by The Chaser and has bought the rights. The same team that made The Departed (which was based on Infernal Affairs) supposedly will also remake this film (possibly also starring Leonardo DiCaprio). Before that movie is made, you can already track down this one as it’s worth watching.
Score: 9
Great review, I have heard such good things about The Chaser. With your comparisons of Cape Fear and Fracture it must be a top film. I know a lot of people wish Hollywood wouldnt try to remake these Korean films as they perfer the originals but if you look at The Departed and the same team is used for this remake it is going to be BIG!
I’m not a big fan of remakes, although The Departed was indeed better than the original. The big difference though was that Infernal Affairs had some structure issues making a bit harder to follow, which The Departed fixed. It tightened everything up. The Chaser however is already very good and doesn’t need a remake. When watching this you already get the Hollywood feel and I can only imagine this to be strictly a replacement of the actors. Not much would need changing. I’ll probably still watch it though 😉
Nice to spotlight this movie, definitely something I would be interested in checking out! Added this to my Netflix queue 🙂
Always nice to hear when a review inspires someone to watch it. I’m currently watching quite a lot of Korean movies (the ones in best of lists) and have not been disappointed yet.
Awesome review! This is definitely one of my favorite thriller. About your point that Hollywood seemed impressed by The Chaser, maybe that’s also why they made the decision to produce the director’s second film “Yellow Sea”.
Interesting to know that! I’ll keep my eyes open for “Yellow Sea”, really want to see it.
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