The tight time-frame gives the excellent cast a chance to play with intensity, making even old genre hands hold their breath and feel their minds sufficiently shaken up.
The Chaser(추격자)
✭ ✭ ✭ Read critic reviews
Korea · 2008
Rated PG-13 · 2h 5m
Director Na Hong-jin
Starring Kim Yoon-seok, Ha Jung-woo, Seo Young-hee, Kim Yoo-jung
Genre Crime, Drama, Thriller
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Joong-ho is ex-detective turned pimp who runs a small prostitution ring. When several of his girls disappear without clearing their debts, Joong-ho tries to track them down and finds that they were last called by the same mysterious client, leading him on a deadly chase for a dangerous killer.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
Slant Magazine by Joseph Jon Lanthier
The opaque ethics of The Chaser elide the reductive nature of binary pairs, focusing instead on the far more piquant complexity of human behavior.
Pulse-pounding third act expertly pushes the audience’s buttons, to excruciatingly ironic and ultimately devastating effect. Pic does turn overwrought in the final stretch and would have been wise to end on an earlier note, though action fans won’t mind.
Chicago Tribune by Michael Phillips
The film is distinguished by the grubby velocity of his foot chases, and the effectiveness of its craft.
The New York Times by Mike Hale
While it could stand to lose 20 minutes and several plot twists, Mr. Na’s debut manages to be thought-provoking and adventurous while providing solid thrills.
Some of the tension drains from a slow middle act, but it remains a gripping tale of sleuth-work and moral awakening.
A late-act tragedy drenched in bloodlust slow-mo epitomizes the film's poseur bleakness, with its treatise on individual and institutional amorality sabotaged by broad-stroke characterizations and a knotty narrative too reliant on twin modern-day horror tropes: preposterous decision-making and lousy cell phone service.
The Guardian by Peter Bradshaw
It's atmospheric but derivative, and I didn't find the denouement's Christian imagery convincing.
Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert
The Chaser is an expert serial-killer film from South Korea and a poster child for what a well-made thriller looked like in the classic days.
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