Rating: R
Genre:
Horror
Release Date: 05/14/2002
SubTitles: English
Dubbed: KO/English
Sound: DD5.1
Run Time: 116 Minutes
Flags: Graphic Violence, Adult Situations, Strong Sexual Content, Not For Children
Distributor/Studio: Kino
This film opens with a young man arriving at an apartment and ending up on a concrete slab getting slowly dismembered with a scalpel by an unseen killer. That unfortunate soul, along with a number of other hapless victims, turns up in a bunch of plastic garbage bags littered around Seoul during Korea's steamy, rainy season. Burnt-out cop Jo (
Han Suk-Kyu) is assigned to head up the investigation. The killer, who puts the limbs of a body with the corpse of another, clearly must have a basic grasp of surgery, Jo and his colleague Oh (
Jang Hang-seon) quickly surmise. Their inquiry soon leads them to Chae Su-yeon (Korean idol
Shim Eun-ha), a beautiful museum restorer who knew three of the victims. At first, she is wary and unresponsive. The cops' attention is briefly turned toward Kim Ki-yeon (
Yu Jun-sang), an obsessive suitor of Chae who had not been seen for several days, that is, until a video tape surfaces of the missing man getting his legs lopped off. Later, as Chae begins to divulge the dark secrets of her past -- sexual abuse and the fiery death of a friend -- the body count grows and the murders become more gruesome. Director
Chang Yoon-hyun's profoundly creepy "hardgore" thriller was a major box-office success in its native South Korea, matching that of
Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace (1999).
~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
;)
