Fridae

You got to hand it to the South Koreans for knowing how to make thrillers that work. Probably having one of Asia’s most competitive educational budgets and one of the highest percentage of college degrees in the entire world has something to do with it. South Korean genre filmmakers, whatever their shortcomings, can generally be counted on to be fearless thinkers who have a solid inside-out knowledge of genres and a rock solid grasp of how to deliver the emotional hook, and how to deliver solid, cost-efficient and entertaining pieces of work. Even if the final result may be predictable, you can always count on an entertaining experience. Plot twists, trick endings, unusual spins on standard characters and tropes: you can always count on Koreans to have them.

Consider Kim Sang Man’s Midnight FM, which starts off as a cat and mouse game similar to Kurosawa’s High and Low. Here it involves Sun-Young, a famous radio personality who decides to quit for the sake of her daughter’s illness, and a psychotic fan, Dong Soo, who has been known to send her postcards under the name “Travis” (after Travis Bickle, so Scorsese/De Niro fans can see where this is going), holds her daughter and sister (hired as an ad hoc babysitter) hostage. Dong-soo asks her to replay the song from her first show (easy enough to find out), but also to remember the exact words she spoke, and her reason for choosing the song. In another of those plot twists Koreans are so fond of, another of Sun-Young’s longtime fans is also assisting her, even if he appears to be benign, we’re made to wonder if he’s all that he seems to be...

By the film’s third act, the film has gone from a simple Hitchcockian setup to a rousing thriller complete with car chases and action sequences and children in peril, life and death decisions at gunpoint, and even an attempt at a social statement. All of these elements are very well-filmed and dovetail with precision, even if the way they’re slapped together can seem forced and contrived. The heart of the film is really all about finding a voice, someone who can speak to your inner being and who understands you.

Midnight FM is another Korean thriller that has everything but the kitchen sink in a pack of all the thrills at half the budget. It will probably see a Hollywood remake but don’t that let that stop you from checking out what is already a fine-tuned, entertaining and efficient thrill ride.