Although the revelations of the murders are grisly and disturbing, director Na tackles it with an artful tact devoid of the exploitative lingering usually found in these kinds of thrillers. Some may still find the film a tough watch because the movie rarely allows respite from its foreboding tone despite that there are some very good old-fashioned foot chases staged in between. But Na lays out his clues very clearly and ingeniously to allow us to follow Joong-ho return to his detective thinking and keep us riveted (albeit he does rely on a somewhat convenient plot coincidence at a climactic scene).
The recent wave of South Korean cinema has become renowned for the fascinating ways it bends the rules of traditional movie genres (and even cross-pollinates them). With the new wave that has included other accomplished crime thrillers like 2003’s masterful Memories of Murder, audiences in the country have also responded strongly to real movies that break the conventional genre mold and mount a brutally relevant social commentary (this movie is the most commercially successful film released in Korea so far this year and yet another Hollywood remake is reportedly already being planned). And while so many routine thrillers as well as horror films contort and pain themselves to merely conceal the identity of its criminal perpetrator and/or nastily fixate on the slashing and gore, superior ones like The Chaser see through it and realize that it is the feeling of human frustration that audiences empathize with and build fear and apprehension from.
Bottom line: Pretty close to brilliance.
Article comments
1 - pete webster
thank you for this review. i just finished watching this movie and i was trying to work out exactly what it made me feel and how it did it so convincingly. you pretty much summed it up perfectly. i have to say some of the feelings i experienced during this film were quite overwhelming. i honestly had no idea what i was in for.
thanks again, i look forward to checking out your other reviews.