MovieChat Forums > Chugyeokja (2008) Discussion > Hong-jin Na's The Chaser (2008) was a re...

Hong-jin Na's The Chaser (2008) was a really disappointing movie.

posted 6 years ago by ThrillerBurden (6)
1 reply | jump to latest

Literally all the characters in the movie (from the killer, to the cops, to the killer's mother, to the killer's prostitute victim) were incompetent as fuck and this is what kept driving the nonsensical plot (like that couple that saw this weird dude living where their old friend –who hasn't been coming to church lately– was living, ask about their old friend, the guy says he doesn't know him, doesn't even try to give them a bullshit explanation, they see their friend's dog all skinny and looking starved, the old guy looks kind of scared, the woman says something's not right; but the killer suddenly comes out and tells them that oh, sorry, he (the guy he just said he doesn't know and doesn't live there) is just sleeping and invites them to come in; and they fucking come in and he, of course, kills them. Like come on!).

At the very end, when they're fighting, I fast forwarded through it. Wtf do I care at this point whether he dies or gets caught or whatever? We've had the whole movie going around in circles with the characters just wasting their time on bullshit. The woman whose life we're invested in has just been killed because of the other characters' neverending incompetence (like, wasn't a cop woman following the guy? Didn't she see him enter that establishment? Wasn't she waiting outside for him to come out? But he somehow escaped? Fully covered in blood? And even managed to bring the escort's head and hands with him to his house? Tf was the cop even doing then, there?). At this point they should have wrapped up the movie. Not go ahead with some reaaally drawn fight scene that will add nothing.

It didn't help that the main character was a complete douche. Forced the sick girl to go to work. Risked her safety by making her go to the house of someone who he suspected was harming the women. Went to check up on her and couldn't even bring another dude with him to help him out. Then goes to the house of the kidnapped woman. Breaks the door and almost leaves the little girl alone in the house with the door all broken.

Nevermind how much the movie is driven by poor communication between the characters (they always start calling each other idiot and bastard before letting the other person explain themselves), which is something you'd expect on a cheap American sitcom.

Overall, really disappointing. Can't believe it's so hyped up in some circles.

Still a 7.9 on IMDb, though, for some reason... (the reason is because it's South Korean and all the Korean movies are rated higher than they would be if they were American made.)

[–] Vidanngo (26) 6 years ago

thank you!
This movie drove me insane because of how many contrivances were involved just to drive the plot forward. Literally nothing made a lick of sense!

A man covered in blood is arrested and confesses to two police officers that he has murdered someone but they have to let him go because they don't have a body so there's no evidence to hold him. WTF?

A girl goes missing and you've found her car and thus a defined search area, so the main character runs off elsewhere. But the police's response to this is what is maddening. They have a search radius around the car but because there are too many houses in the area, let's just go into the mountains and look there instead. Has a police officer ever said this? "Mate, I mean, we have her last known location, but it's just too much work you know? so we're just going to look somewhere else that's not as labour intensive" WTF?????

They leave a suspected woman killer who is clearly deranged with a single female police officer. WTF??

Two police officers follow him after he leaves but one misses the bus/train (I can't remember) and just decides 'ah fuck it, no point me trying to catch up anyway. I'm sure this one skinny female police officer can handle the job just fine. I'll go get some KFC" WTF??

Police officer follows a suspect who goes into a tiny convenience store and stays in there for at least 30 minutes. She doesn't even bother to look inside and just waits outside for half an hour. Just sits by the street side possibly day dreaming about the latest K-Pop band. WTF???

There are so many more retarded stupid moments in this movie that just depends on stupid contrivances. I know it was trying to make the case of police incompetence, but at least make it believable. This is cartoon level ineptitude. The villain did everything possible to be caught but only escaped because of sheer stupidity on everyone else's part.