Rating: D+
Dir: Jae-Young Shin
Star: Jung Kyung-ho, Jung Yu-mi, Kim Sae-ron, Jo Dal-hwan
This definitely feels like it should have been considerably more interesting than it was. I mean, you have a serial killer, Soo-chul (Jung K-h), abducting people off the streets and dragging them into his subterranean lair. The police are largely baffled, though they don’t seem to be exactly putting a lot of effort into the investigation. That’s about par for the Korean course though, at least cinematically. I’m hard pushed to think of a movie which depicts the cops there collectively as a competent authority. Lazy, corrupt and useless? Sure, and it feels like the first is closest to the truth here. Which is why a taxi-driver and a young civilian woman do most of the legwork.
Both are seeking relatives kidnapped by Soo-chul. In particular, Yeon-Soo (Jung Y-m) is looking for her younger sister, the mute Soo-jeong (Kim). She saw the killer abduct one of his victims, and ended up being pulled down into the sewers as well. I will say this for Soo-chul. He has built quite the underground lair there, tapping into the utilities above ground, with closed-circuit cameras. Probably high-speed Internet as well. It does seem a tad implausible, with these sewers being remarkably roomy and suspiciously well-lit. The latter kinda renders his trademark night vision goggles, giving Soo-chul glowing red eyes (top), unnecessary and a bit of an affectation. Though I dread to think how much Fabreze per week he gets through down there.
That I’m considering diversions like this, says something about the movie, which never managed to grab my attention in any consistent manner. It feels reluctant to commit to any single plot thread: focusing just on the sisters, might have been a better idea? Weirdly, Shin’s style seems to involve abruptly ending scenes when it feels they still have something to say, which is certainly a choice. I did appreciate the sense that anyone can (and will) die at any time, present to a greater degree than in a typical Western film. But I ended up diverted down a rabbit-hole, reading about the death by suicide in February of Kim. A DUI incident caused a scandal in Korea, and a slew of negative publicity from which she never recovered.
This may well be more emotionally affecting than the film (though, to be honest, still isn’t very much). As noted, the idea is certainly creepy, and if you can turn off the bits of your brain that will spend much of the film going, “Hang on a minute…”, this could be effective enough. I’d still have preferred it had the threat been killer sharks. Or crocodiles. Or urban wombats with rabies. Since I never particularly vibed with the characters, however, it became impossible to give the weaknesses in the plot the benefit of the doubt. When the characters were battling for their lives, and splashing around in the murky waters, all I could think was, “That’s a staph infection waiting to happen.”