Country: Korea
Genre: Horror/ Suspense/ Comedy/ Drama/ Action
Director: Hong-jin Na
Year: 2008
Rating: 
TRASH CINEMA ESSENTIAL MOVIE
American critics are fond of saying that today’s movies are “dark.” The Dark Knight Returns is dark. Sin City is dark. Watchmen is dark. Bullshit. You want dark? Watch Korean movies.
A case in point is Chaser.
After Joong-ho Eom (Yun-seok Kim) was fired from the police force for taking bribes, he became a pimp. But Joong-ho Eom is having troubles. His whores keep disappearing on him. That’s because they’re being murdered by serial killer Young-min Jee (Jung-woo Ha). And no, I’m not giving away anything here.
When the latest prostitute, Mi-jin Kim (Yeong-hie Seo), disappears, Joong-ho Eom finally makes the connection: all of the women who have disappeared served the same client, but Joong-ho Eom doesn’t have the client’s address. So starts the chase. The kicker is, Mi-jin Kim is still alive. Will Joong-ho Eom be able to find Young-min Jee’s lair before he kills Mi-jin Kim?
Actually, it should be easy. Young-min Jee is captured early on and admits to being a serial killer. There are dozens of cops available to investigate the case. But here’s where it gets interesting.
Like many Korean movies, Chaser depicts the police culture as being profoundly uninterested in public service. To Korean cops, a badge is a license to steal, in the form of bribes. The cops are not terribly interested in enforcing the law. It’s viewed as a nuisance and distraction from the real business of shaking down citizens. Because of political considerations, Young-min Jee will be released within a day if the police cannot find any proof that he murdered someone. Of course, if Young-min Jee gets back to his lair and finds Mi-jin Kim still breathing, she’s toast.
Chaser is almost unbearably suspenseful, thanks to the usual flawless Korean actors, Hong-jin Na’s tense and elegant directing style, and a pitch perfect script by Won-Chan Hong and Shinho Lee.
Cop turned pimp Joong-ho Eom’s journey is fascinating. When we meet him, he’s an unrepentent scumbag, forcing one of his girls to work even though she’s sick. To say that Joong-ho Eom is callous and unfeeling is an understatement. By the end of Chaser, Joong-ho Eom is nothing but feeling. Actor Yun-seok Kim is extraordinarily powerful in the role.
Yeong-hie Seo, who plays the prostitute in the clutches of the serial killer, is fantastic, too. In a few short minutes, she conveys a complete character, far beyond what is written in the script. Afterwards, her performance is almost wordless, but incredibly powerful.
Jung-woo Ha is very, very creepy as the serial killer. He plays him as sly and manipulative, with a joy in the destructive of other human beings buried deep inside him.
The other actors, without exception, are equally good, down to the smallest parts.
As is often the case with Korean films, the physical production is impeccable. Luscious cinematography, precise camera movements, framing so exquisite you could take stills at random and mount them as art — all very impressive. The fighting choreography isn’t pretty to look at, but the filmmakers weren’t going for excitement, but rather realism. The grappling is messy and awkward, the way it would be in real life.
And the script is something else. There has to be at least a dozen dramatic reversals in the script. The writers tease and torture us, but never in an illogical way. Most bizarrely, there is a great deal of humor along the way, which almost makes the events more horrible.
Despite all of my praise, I’ll have to warn you: Chaser is truly horrific. Remember, this is a Korean film. Sometimes Korean films have happy endings and sometimes they do not. You can never tell who will live and who will die in a Korean movie.
If you can deal with the utterly bleak worldview of Chaser, I highly recommend it.