The Chaser

Hot diggety- Did I enjoy this flick.
If this was made by the Hollywood machinery (and according to the trailer it is being remade) then this is the kind of movie where all the girls get kidnapped whenever Morgan Freeman is around,Denzel Washington looks cool lying crippled in
bed or Christopher Lambert saves the day with some cool chess moves...

But although you might initially feel this is a paint-by-the numbers serial killer with weird fetish getting caught by cop with a past- story this has an added Korean flavor, the MSG infused aftertaste where anything can happen in those dark-green alleys of Seoul that we have come to know so well with the emergence of kick-ass Korean movies from the last few years.
In some ways it made me think of Old Boy especially in a few of the hammer bludgeoning scenes at the end of the Chaser but specifically the way the scenes were shot and lit.
The story is of a cop-turned-pimp trying to save one of his 'ladies of the night' from a serial killer and he has 12 hours to prove the dude is guilty or he gets left out on bail. (I kept thinking how polite korean cops are, they REALLY wanted to let the guy go- maybe we should consider organising a crime wave on rollerskates dressed as santa in Korea...where's Stephen Dorf when you need him)

Although it sounds like a conventional story it leaves you on the edge of your futon from the get go, making you realize that the movie speaks an entirely different language. One of the first scene is between the holy trinity of trick, bitch and pimp where the John was up for some crazy perverted asian sex, he had a guy stashed with a camera and was adamant that the girl does not pee in the toilet, I dont know what the guy was cooking up or how he gets his kicks but the interaction between the characters and how our reluctant hero comes to the rescue whilst still making a quick buck is remarkable. And I love the look the girl gave our hero whilst she walked by him with a huge swollen eye.
It msut be said that after seeing so many Korean flicks lately I just expect some sickly shit to happen suddenly. The Chaser isn't gory but it does not shy away from getting its mittens dirty.

The good guy doesn't necessarily win and the bad guy is just pure evil.(And one of the kids gets hurt really bad. I don't know if she also got raped but let's assume she didn't.)
The movie gets extra points in my book for making cops looks like complete idiots. And any movie that does that without having to resort to bringing out Louis de Funes and his nuns is ok in my book.

Also, how cool is that poster? It's got me saying...I want to take his face... offf!
Let the remaking begin!