The Chaser (2008) Crime Drama

The Chaser (2008) Chugyeogja (Korean) - I did not intend to watch this movie, I was up and watching the College Football Championship Game but with Colt McCoy out injured the game changed into an Alabama lovefest. Instead of sleeping I watched this captivating and incredibly sad film from South Korea. Joong-ho (Yun-seok Kim) is a dirty cop running a prostitution ring, things are going badly because his girls keep running away (disappearing). He is on to the guy who sees the girls just before they are gone. Using his police connections he begins looking for the guy. Mi-jin Kim (Yeong-hei Seo) is a prostitute with a seven year old daughter, she is the next to see the mysterious guy and quickly finds out he is a serial killer. Bound the killer attempts to kill her by driving a chisel into her skull, fails but is interupted by visitors to the house he has taken when he killed the owner. Mi-jin is unconciuos while he deals with the visitors. While he is out for some reason he accidently hits the car of the very cop who is looking for him. The chasing begins! The cop brings him in but because it is not his district and he does not have his badge the officers at the station treat him with hostility for beating the killer. There is a great deal here about the justice system in Korea where the guilty are often released because of either bad behavior by police or the ineffectual system. While Joong-ho attempts to find his girl in the neighborhood he found the killer in, the police bungle the processing and by morning the killer is set free. Becasue of the beating of the killer the cops also want to arrest our main character but he is out in the streets in a race against time to save his prostitute while caring for her seven year old daughter.

The end is devestating with chance being put to the test before the resolution of the story. This was very much a compelling film although it did force suspension of disbelief in random meeting odds. Director Hong-jin Na is making a movie currently in the USA and I wonder if it is a remake , entitled The Murderer is could be?
Rating (7.3)