Another CAustiC CAt-And-Mouse GAMe
THE CHASER Starring Yun-seok Kim, Jung-woo Ha and Yeong-hie Seo
Directed by Hong-jin Na Written by Won-Chan Hong, Shinho Lee and Hong-jin Na E1
Having already enjoyed massive success in
South Korea, Hong-jin Na’s directorial debut The Chaser – recently released on DVD in North Amer- ica – is a serial killer movie in line with the same extreme cinematic movement that spawned I Saw the Devil, only with a lighter touch. When dirty cop-turned-pimp Joong-ho Eom
(Yun-seek Kim) suffers losses to both his pocket- book and his harem of ladies (who have been dis- appearing without clearing their debts), he starts digging around and realizes he’s just sent his best girl to the same client where the trail of missing prostitutes goes cold. He arrives at the mysterious location just in time to see the killer, Young-min Jee (Jung-woo ha, pictured below) tormenting his latest victim in a sequence that’s painful to watch. After delivering a swift beating, the pimp takes the murderer to the police, but with his credibility ru- ined by his pimpy ways, the killer is set free. Cue vengeful finale as the protago- nist decides to step outside the law to administer bloody justice. A tense ride tricked out with
some sick set pieces (Korean filmmakers sure love their ham- mer murders), The Chaser is a bitter commentary on the cor- rupt Korean police force. It shares the same central conflict of I Saw the Devil – a flawed hero chasing a deranged killer – but stops short of deconstructing the genre as much as that film does. Whereas I Saw the Devil director Kim forces the audience to identify with his killer and feel disgust toward the hero, blurring the lines between protagonist and antagonist, Na opts for a well-defined hero and villain. Much like Infernal Affairs offered an impressive,
though toned down, example of Hong Kong action cinema and was eventually remade into The De- parted, The Chaser feels like a dark Korean thriller destined for an American re-imagining. Appropri- ate then that Leonardo DiCaprio is reportedly al- ready planning a remake. That said, The Chaser still edges deeper into the dark- ness of the serial killer genre than most Hollywood outings have dared. PHIL BROWN
Carry A Big Stick: Soo-hyun embraces his violent nature.
ema such as Martyrs, but he asserts that his primary source of inspiration was much more subdued. “The most important movie for me was David
Fincher’s Zodiac, which I think is beautiful,” says Kim. “The tone of my movie and the colour palette are very influenced by it.” Similar to how Fincher used the unsolved Zo-
diac murders as the backdrop for a film primarily about obsession, Kim saw the serial killer film as the perfect backdrop to explore the darkest as- pects of human nature. “Through the serial killer I wanted to show the
devil inside all humans,” he says. “I thought a lot about what I think defines ‘devil’ and what I think defines ‘evil.’ Some people dedicate their lives to good, while some people dedicate their lives to
evil, and I wanted to show what draws people down that path of evil. So the killer is defined as the devil in the title and I wanted to portray the irony and irra- tionality of his life.” There is a pronounced sense of delirious joy evident
in Choi’s deranged performance as he brandishes a blunt hammer on his latest victim, which contrasts with the cold professionalism of Lee’s seemingly courageous journey in a manner that makes for a very uncomfortable viewing experience. In addition, by casting an actor who has built up goodwill through heroic roles in films such as Oldboy and the 2005 war epic Brotherhood, audiences – particularly in Korea – want to identify with Choi’s character. Naturally, this makes it even more difficult to watch him engage in such nefarious behaviour as molesting young girls, carving up his victims and sharing a dinner table with cannibals. Kim admits that he kept things graphic and shocking in a specific attempt to shake things up in both Korean cinema and the country’s society in gen-
eral. “Our speech and environment are very limited by
taboos in Korean society, which I find frustrating,” he laments. “I wanted to break as many of these taboos as I could because the reality of a serial killer is far more violent and frightening than anything seen in a movie. So, I actually think it’s amusing
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that we can’t deal with that reality in a movie. I think in a way Korean society is almost more sickening than anything in the movie for forbidding us from seeing those things.” That desire to push boundaries in genre films is pre-
cisely what aligns Kim with several of his South Korean contemporaries – specifically Joon-ho Bong, who used the monster movie as a means of satirizing ig- norant American imperialism in The Host, and Chan- wook Park, whose Vengeance Trilogy (Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Oldboy, Sympathy for Lady Vengeance) combined lurid thrills with a philosophical examination of human nature. Kim is good friends with both Bong and Park and they all make an effort to in- spire and improve each other’s work. “We are very close,” says Kim. “We even met to
watch [I Saw the Devil] together before it was re- leased. We often meet for dinners and discuss our fu- ture plans. We’ll exchange screenplays and offer each other advice. Everyone is so busy now that we can’t meet up as much as we used to, but every time one of us has a premiere we all go. We definitely respect each other a great deal and I think we’re also chal- lenged by each other. When I see something like Old- boy or The Host, it definitely challenges me to make a better movie. I hope they feel the same way when they see my films.” Though his previous work could be described as
favouring style over substance, I Saw the Devil would seem to represent Kim’s conscious attempt to add new depth and meaning to his work. (The influence of the Vengeance Trilogy, which explores the joy, pain and ultimate futility of revenge, is undeniable.) Kim wants to ensure that audiences leave I Saw the Devil on a thoughtful but bittersweet note. The film refuses to offer an easy way out for either its characters or its audience. “I hope the audience is thrilled and excited by the
journey of vengeance and gets a sense of catharsis, but by the end they should feel an emptiness as well,” says Kim. “I think it’s immoral to be excited by some of the extraordinarily violent things that [the hero] does in the film, so hopefully by the end the audience real- izes the futility of his quest.”
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