Fridae

The second must-see movie of the week is The Chaser. This adrenaline-packed and unpredictable thriller has already become the biggest box-office champ in South Korea, packing cinemas for three straight months! It's so good, in fact, that Hollywood has bought the rights to remake it in English.

The Chaser stars Kim Yun-Seok as an ex-cop who turns to pimping to make some cold hard cash. But when two of his girls go missing and a third one seems likely to do the same, he suspects something isn't right. As it is, there is serial killer of hookers on the loose, and Kim realises he must do something before it's too late...

The beauty of The Chaser is that it overturns the rules of the thriller to make it thoroughly unpredictable. For example, the real drama in the movie begins not when the killer is being pursued, but after the killer's been arrested. Clever plotting keeps the audience constantly at the edge of suspense, as the tightly-wound storyline gets more and more unpredictable.

The acting is also excellent. Kim Yun-Seok and Ha Jung-Woo as cop and killer respectively rise above the genre to deliver perfectly convincing portraits of men with strange and complex motivations. First-time director and screenwriter Na Hong Jin deserves all the kudos in the world for his impressive debut picture.

As a matter of fact, The Chaser has already won the Grand Prize at the 44th Baeksang Art Awards, as well as the five top prizes at the 45th Daejong Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor.

Well, what are you waiting for?