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

Reviewed by Liz Thelander. Viewed at the ArcLight Hollywood as part of the AFI Film Festival.

The Chaser is a completely twisted breed of crime-thriller that we simply aren’t used to here in America. This story is told the South Korean way. In this South Korean crime-thriller, the chase scenes are longer, the resulting combats are bloodier, the blood is messier, the wit is drier, and, perhaps most interestingly of all, not a single gun is seen throughout the entire movie. There is plenty of cold-blooded murder and horrific mutilation and director Hong-jin Na has the characters use every kind of brutally blunt or sharp object imaginable to commit these gruesome atrocities, but not once is a gun fired.

The Chaser follows a detective-turned-pimp in urban South Korea as he searches for one of his working girls, who, he thinks, has been sold off to another pimp. All he has to help him find her is the last four digits of the mystery john’s phone number. What he doesn’t know is that she was in fact kidnapped by a serial murderer who targets prostitutes and that he just blindly hurled himself into a very dangerous game of cat and mouse.

This film was shot beautifully. Everything takes on a green urban glow. The director chose to use a hand-held camera for chases and fight scenes, which puts the viewer right into the thick of the action. There is very little music, except for a score of dramatic strings and percussion for the major chase scenes. If you are very squeamish about blood and violence, I would not recommend seeing this movie, but if you can take a little flying blood here and there, I highly suggest you catch this brilliantly shocking thriller.

This film was screened at the AFI Film Festival and it may not be distributed commercially, so maybe try Netflix or another internet source to find it if you are interested in watching The Chaser. (The Chaser was released in South Korea under the name Chugyeogja.)