Chugyeogja aka
The Chaser (2008)
For the last couple of years as I have been watching movies regularly & passionately, now I undoubtedly like to admit that South Korea has become the boss in the sub genre of Serial Killer films in today's world cinema. After such recent masterpieces like
Memories of Murder &
Mother, now here is another superb & magnificent addition to the Korean Serial Killer genre of movies.
The Chaser is an intensely mesmerizing and keeping on the-edge of your seat experience. But more than that I should say it's a devastating experience...that I truly felt at close to the end of the film. The film is based on a real life serial killer in South Korea, who was convicted in 2005 for murdering 20 people. The film starts with a dirty detective turned pimp (Jung-ho) who is in financial trouble as several of his girls have recently disappeared without clearing their debts. While trying to track them down, he finds a clue that the vanished girls were all called up by a same client whom one of his girls is meeting with right now. He begins to look for her in that client's mentioned location of area & during the search, Jung-ho even able to catch that man (wearing blood splattered shirt) in an alley. But just after that the police takes control over the situation. The police suspects & Jung-ho believes this man is the killer or abductor but there's no significant evidence in their hand except his utterly misleading confession. And from that point of the film The Chaser becomes more intriguing the more watch with all the twist & turns till the final credit rolls.
It's not just another crime drama about a serial killer and some guys chasing him; there's comedy of errors in the way the police and politicians are portrayed, there's strong emotional content that grows around the little girl of a prostitute who doubts something happened to her mother, there's sufficient psychological thriller element that comes through the way the killer messes with the minds of the police and last but not the least there's the shattering finale...as in the way everything ends.
Except Derek, I'm not sure who else here already seen this film but this is unmissable! A MUST SEE FOR EVERYONE!
>>: A