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

Reviewed by Darryl Walden.  Viewed at the ArcLight Theater, AFI Film Festival.

Although I arrived at this screening late, the fast pace of sequential action of The Chaser made it easy for me to get up to speed.  

Joong-ho is an ex-cop turned pimp who discovers before local South Korean law enforcement that there is a connection between a customer and missing prostitutes from his stable when he sends out one of his favorite girls, Minji.  Joong-ho’s investigative instinct carries him into the vicinity of the culprit, Yeong-min when he serendipitously crashes into Yeong-min’s car.  Yeong-min refuses to take issue over car damage.  There is blood on his shirt unrelated to the car accident.  This prompts Joong-ho to dial the cell phone number of the customer he sent Minji to patronize.  When Yeong-min’s cellphone rings, he quickly exits the car and the first chase in what will become a motif is on.

Joong-ho overcomes Yeong-min and pulverizes him into a confession that he killed the prostitutes. Posing as a cop with Yeong-min handcuffed, Joong-ho leads the culprit back to the car, intent on locating the alleged burial sites in order to determine if Yeong-min’s confession had any validity.  However, the police arrive and take them both into custody.  At the station, Yeong-min methodically stretches out the time by confessing to the murders of the prostitutes, yet he does not provide authorities with any evidence to prove them.  Yeong-min hints that the last victim may still be alive.  Still, according to South Korean law, without evidence of the crimes, Yeong-min must be released within twelve hours.

Na Hong-jin follows the western formula of low-key lighting in film noir to accentuate the narrative plot that seeks to corner an admitted serial killer, juxtaposed with Joong-ho’s struggle to redeem the morality he abandoned as a cop.  To his credit, Na Hong-jin’s screenwriting collaboration with Hong Wan-chan and Shinho Lee gives us an arresting glimpse into inadequacies that exist in the criminal justice system of South Korea as a developing Third World country; the script is seething with the implied political corruption that adversely affects the social mores, and in particular, widespread prostitution as a survival mechanism.