MovieChat Forums > Salinui chueok (2003) Discussion > Overrated and here's why.... *spoilers*

Overrated and here's why.... spoilers

posted 13 years ago by xxmyloveuxx
13 replies | jump to latest

Looking aside all the eye-candy cinematography and the solid direction and good acting and the funny skits, the plot was kind of hollow..
I say this because firstly, despite all the knots and ends the story was leading to: the person who is mainly suspected as being the killer was found out pretty simplistically by tracing down the address on the postcard on which he orders songs to be played every night the murders take place. I mean no-fancy brain work involved here.
Secondly the entire movie was standing on whether he would confess to it or not without there being any solid proof of him doing it. It was like a cliche..
Overall, I went in expecting to be blown away.. to see some masterpiece psychological drama kind of crime/detective movie.. but the story was too simplistic for me. Maybe that's why many people like it... (it is rated 8 here on imdb) but it just doesn't cut it for me.. You just can't be great by staying ordinary.

[–] Garabombo_mx 13 years ago

I am sure this was addressed somewhere else in the board. The guy requesting the song was suspected because those requests, but he wanting to hear the song on rainy days was just and odd coincidence. He was not the killer as the DNA test proved. The case this is based upon wasn't solved either.

[–] eagletony 13 years ago

Secondly the entire movie was standing on whether he would confess to it or not without there being any solid proof of him doing it. It was like a cliche..

Overall, I went in expecting to be blown away.. to see some masterpiece psychological drama kind of crime/detective movie.. but the story was too simplistic for me. Maybe that's why many people like it... (it is rated 8 here on imdb) but it just doesn't cut it for me.. You just can't be great by staying ordinary.

I'd say that's not really a flaw of the movie, but just reflective of the nature of police work back then in Korea. The cops in the movie were all simple minded idiots that beat confessions out of their suspects and when a more sophisticated criminal emerged, they were out of their element.

It's not really fair to dislike a movie because you expected it to be a certain way, and it wasn't. Sure, it's a simplistic story, but that's the beauty of it. A murder investigation is usually nothing extraordinary, and I'm glad it didn't get too crazy with plot twists and whatnot.

[–] xxmyloveuxx 13 years ago

Well, yeah, I'm not disliking the movie, I'm just indifferent. I'll say it's even in my "likes" as I've given it a much better rating than I give an average movie. (Was a 7 for me). But I just can't see why it should be considered a masterpiece, with such a simple plot. That's why I say it's *overated* not *bad*.
But then again, I may be wrong, as the execution of the simple plot was really good.

[–] Fake_Plastic_Love 13 years ago

It's not a simple plot though. Not only is it based on a true story, the whole film is highly political and allegorical for Korean history and government during the time period. It is far beyond an ordinary cop catching a killer story. I don't blame you for missing all these especially if you're a foreigner unfamiliar with Korea however.

[–] mirkea 13 years ago

Overrated and here's why: it's about as average as these movies get. There's absolutely nothing special about it.

[–] rudykawa 12 years ago

Why people only looks at the script when analysing a movie.
A movie is SO MUCH MORE than the script. But SO MUCH MORE.

It's like analysing someone's poetry or literature by looking just to the person's handwriting beauty.
You're just scratching the surface when you do that.

[–] tim_tim_tim_ 12 years ago

Some Minor and major themes i picked up on.

- Police brutality
- Police incentive systems
- Terror in Rural towns
- City cop vs rural cop (or higher education versus lower education)
- Instinct versus perception
- Documents versus voodoo magic and faith
- Civil unrest
- Korean revolution during 80s
- Morality versus Law en justice.
- The angst of never getting you answer you as a viewer deserve.

[–] thunder137 12 years ago

Sounds like you were unable to understand the movie if you think the plot was "hollow". But seriously how can someone who have rated Twilight - Breaking Dawn with a 9/10!!! appreciate good cinematography.

[–] somepersons 12 years ago

^
LOL

[–] xxmyloveuxx 12 years ago

Sometimes I give good scores to average movies just to even out the low ratings due to the uneven hate directed towards it. Same goes for overrated good movies.

[–] chunkylefunga 11 years ago

You know you're part of the problem with the rating system.
Give a film the rating you think it deserves, imagine how many other people there are who are voting like you. It just makes the problem worse.

Back to the film.

My main issue with this film is that I found it very obvious that the 'retard' was describing witnessing the murder. Yet it took a good 90 or so minutes for this connection to be made. Considering how well the detectives seemed to be making general links to the murder, I'm amazed how long this took for them to work out.
I just kept thinking 'when are they going to figure the retard bit out'.

[–] minhal92 11 years ago

Lol OP is just stupid. Seriously some of the worst ratings ever, you obviously can't appreciate good cinematography.
The Dark Knight - 1. The Departed - 1. The Usual Suspects- 2.
These are some of OP's ratings.
Don't really need to say much more.. This movie was pretty good.

[–] Makalli 11 years ago

Apocalypse Now -2.
World War Z -10.

Yeah seems like the OP only has two settings. Loved it or hated it.