The Chaser (Hong-jin Na, 2008): South Korea

Reviewed by David Brown. Viewed at the AFI Filmfestival, Arclight, Los Angeles.

The Chaser by Na-Hong-Jin is a unique thriller with gut wrenching moments that will stay stuck in your head for days. Most of this movie will lead you places that you didn’t even know you were going. This movie reaches new heights and should be in a genre all of its own. This movie is well balanced and contains the right amount of drama, comedy, and suspense.

I waited patiently for my first movie experience at the AFI Festival in Hollywood’s Arclight Theater. The lights dimmed and we were set to take on the first movie of the festival. The movie opens with erratic jump cuts following a young woman in a busy Korean city street. We follow her to unknown locations and we lose track of her a few minutes later. We then are introduced to our protagonist Joong-ho. He is currently a pimp but used to be a detective that didn’t play by the rules. He starts to notice a trend of his girls disappearing from the job. He begins tracking his girls down to see if they are being sold. He uses his detective skills to track down his girls which all disappeared after getting sent to the same customer. This customer however won’t by any means be caught very easily. It will take Joong-ho not only skill but luck and chance to find out what’s really been happening to his girls.

This movie has you experience a multitude of feelings and emotions that keep you entangled in a rather complex story. The lighting and cinematography defiantly keep you involved in the story. You feel this grit in your teeth with every passing frame. It consistently feels like you’re walking through the crime filled, filthy streets of a busy and corrupt city. Most scenes are covered with green and yellow to make you feel like you’re sick and caught in between all of the action. The editing is very well balanced. We have fast cutting when the action is heightened and some slow and long edits when the story is more dramatic. The acting feels right for this movie because the dialogue is realistic and uses a lot of rough language. We don’t feel censored in any way, shape or form. You hear all of the bad language, you see all of the violence, and there are no breaks in this feeling of rawness. The music was powerful at moments of heightened drama and fast paced during the action packed scenes. It all seemed to fit together effortlessly.

Throughout this movie you feel like you are witnessing an event that is raw and gritty. The gore is very real and reminds me a lot of Saw. Sometimes this movie feels like it is crossing a line with the blood but it fits this movie very well. There is a scene in a bathroom that feels identical to the first Saw. This film also has some moments that will make you feel sick but for some reason you just can’t stop watching. The camera seems to pull you right into the action and it’s so real that you can’t look away. This movie also has the feeling of a great action and thriller movie. You could say it is as faced paced as The Bourne Identity series. You have very faced paced action that goes on for long periods of time and really keeps you on the edge of your seat.

This movie definitely shows that this new director Na-Hong-Jin has some potential to make some great movies. He has a style all of his own and knows how to make a gut-wrenching movie. The Chaser is a movie for those who enjoy the fast paced and gritty detective stories.