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DVD Sum-bakk-og-jil
 Run time: 107 min Rating: 6.2 Genres: Thriller Director: Jung Huh Writers: Jung Huh Stars: Mi-seon Jeon, Jung-Hee Moon, Hyeon-ju Son |
| Storyline Seong-soo, a successful businessman who lives with the perfect family in a luxury apartment, has secrets and mysophobia about his one and only brother. One day, he goes to see his brother after a phone call about him missing and sees weird symbols all over the house and he meets Joo-hee who knows his brother. “Please tell him to stop looking at my daughter. Joo-hee lives alone with her daughter but lives in fear of someone watching them. Seong-soo looks around carefully at the old apartment and realizes the symbols mean gender and numbers of people.Seong-soo returns to his from his brother’s and notices a familiar symbol written next to the bell of his house too. Written by anonymous |
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| Details: Country: South Korea Release Date: 14 August 2013 (South Korea) |
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DVD Sum-bakk-og-jil
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Korean Cinema has been consistently making one of the best thrillers; "Hide and Seek" is an addition to that list. Huh Jung's debut feature as a Writer/Director has every ingredient of a classy and creepy thriller and has been executed with precision. It keeps us at the razor edge for the entire run time; every scene will leave you contemplating with the supreme suspense. It leaves behind the clichés of slasher/horror movies and gives a new tone within the genre.
At the very start, a woman is chased by person dressed in all black, sporting a black motor cycle helmet, following young woman and you will instantaneously feel that it is going to be a sensational ride.
Sung-soo (Son Hyun-joo) is a wealthy entrepreneur, suffering from excessive cleaning and anxiety, living a mundane life with hidden secrets. With his wife and two children, he lives in an affluent life in a very high society and trying to keep the family happy. Until one day, when Sung-soo receives a call informing him his estranged brother has gone missing. This starts his hunt to find him and he is engulfed into the mysterious world. He is chasing the enigmatic black figure thinking that it is his brother. The revelations and symbols keep you startled as frames pass.
The screenplay has perfect timing of revelations, flashbacks and strikes an entertaining chase sequences. The character development and the subplots add values and sometime it jumps the genres. The editing has been done with utmost skill with sustaining the intensity through 107 minutes of decent run time.
"Hide and Seek" is a well-made and satisfying thriller, with good performances. Finally , we get an astonishing thriller with terror and horror.
A must watch for Thriller Genre.
MY Vote – 7.5/10.
Korean writer/director Jung Huh made this fascinating film in 2013 to great critical acclaim. It is a well-sculpted movie and surprisingly is more understated than the usual fare from these films.
Seong-soo (Heyeon-ju Son)), a successful businessman who lives with the perfect family in a luxury apartment, has secrets and mysophobia (pathological fear of contamination and germs) about his one and only brother. One day, he goes to see his brother after a phone call about him being missing and sees weird symbols all over the house and he meets Joo-hee (Jung-Hee Moon) who knows his brother. "Please tell him to stop looking at my daughter. Joo-hee lives alone with her daughter but lives in fear of someone watching them. Seong-soo looks around carefully at the old apartment and realizes the symbols mean gender and numbers of people. Seong-soo returns to his home from his brother's and notices a familiar symbol written next to the doorbell of his house, too. And the mystery thriller sails to a strange conclusion.
In Korean with English subtitles, this is a bizarre little jewel of a film, well worth watching.
I watched this film with a high expectation because I heard that this is one of the highest grossing films in Korea last year. I am also a fan of South Korean thrillers and horror films and was excited about this one.
Overall the movie did pretty well. It had a creepy start, creepy antagonist, and when this person attacks it surely is suspenseful. There are also some really weird scenes and a nice twist (unfortunately, it was spoiled for me, hahah, so I can't tell if it's predictable or not). However, talking about that creepy start of the film, nothing was really creepy to me as I already have seen this from Goosebumps (Torihada), a horror series from Japan about creepy stalkers and psychos. Also, somewhere in the end, the antagonist in this film reminds me of also the antagonist in the 2005 Hong Kong horror/thriller "Home Sweet Home" starring Qi Shu. I also remembered the crazy slasher film from Hong Kong called "Dream Home" from that character. That makes the film somewhat unoriginal and of less impact to me. Still, this is a nice creepy thriller from start up to the very end and was executed very differently from the mentioned films.
One might need to re-watch it (like me) because things or flashbacks aren't explained clearly, and were very, very minimal. I also found some problem with the film's direction though I couldn't really tell. Anyways, I'm giving it a 7/10 for the overall quality of this Korean flick.
If you have seen Michael's Haneke "Cache" you will first regard this as Korean rip-off. There's adopted brother, injustice and a some unpleasant mystery in the air. First part was quite entertaining but as soon as I found elements common to both movies it kind of spoiled the whole surprise. Do not worry though. Actually, this one focuses more on the thriller angle and gives totally different solution: slasher violence included and deep insight into upper middle class life omitted.
Anyway it has a lot of thrill and may be entertaining. Provided you know (and now you do) that this is not Asian "Cache".