''Blind'' () is a 2011 South Korean crime thriller film directed by Ahn Sang-hoon with screenplay by Choi Min-seok which won the "Hit By Pitch" project fair held by the Korean Movie Producers Guild in 2009. It stars
Kim Ha-neul
Kim Ha-neul (; born February 21, 1978) is a South Korean actress. After starting her career as a model, she rose to fame by starring in romantic-comedy films ''My Tutor Friend'' (2003) and ''Too Beautiful to Lie'' (2004) and the action-comedy f ...
and
Yoo Seung-ho
Yoo Seung-ho (; born August 17, 1993) is a South Korean actor who rose to fame as a child actor in the film '' The Way Home'' (2002). Since then, he has starred in many television series and movie films as a child and teenager.
After his two-yea ...
. Kim received Best Actress honors at the
48th Grand Bell Awards
The 48th Grand Bell Awards (), also known as Daejong Film Awards, are determined and presented annually by The Motion Pictures Association of Korea for excellence in film in South Korea. The Grand Bell Awards were first presented in 1962 and have g ...
and the
32nd Blue Dragon Film Awards for her performance.
Plot
A
missing person case involving a female university student and the victim in a
hit and run
In traffic laws, a hit and run or a hit-and-run is the act of causing a traffic collision and not stopping afterwards. It is considered a supplemental crime in most jurisdictions.
Additional obligation
In many jurisdictions, there may be a ...
case appears to be related. Detectives look for a witness.
Min Soo-ah used to be a promising cadet at the police academy but after a horrific car accident which killed her surrogate brother Dong-hyun and caused her to lose her eyesight, her police career ended. Soo-ah reveals to Detective Jo at the police station that on the night of the hit and run case she was picked up by a taxi cab driver. Soo-ah believes the taxi driver may be the perpetrator of the crimes. Initially, Detective Jo doesn't take Soo-ah's claims seriously because she is blind, but when Soo-ah displays her acute senses, the detective starts to believe her.
Detective Jo and Soo-ah then work together to find the taxi cab driver, but all their leads turn up empty. Then another witness comes forward, Kwon Gi-seob. Gi-seob is a motorcycle delivery boy who claims to have also witnessed the hit and run incident. Gi-seob emphatically states that the car in question was not a taxi cab, but rather an imported sedan.
Meanwhile, Soo-ah finds herself being stalked by a mysterious man who turns out to be the killer, gynecologist Myung-jin. Soo-ah, while in the car with him, remembered that he had a strong scent, he had a watch on his right hand, and he gave her an iced coffee drink in a glass can. While in the car with him, they hit a bump while in an argument. The body of the dead university student rolls out of the trunk and Myung-jin gets out to examine it. When Soo-ah goes out as well to inspect the damage done, he claims that he hit a dog, but she reasons with him, starting another fight. He leaves her in the rain when another car comes. The reason why she was in the car with him is because she needed a ride back from visiting the orphanage she used to grow up in.
One night when Gi-seob is walking home alone, he is followed by Myung-jin. Gi-seob at first runs away, but is snuck up on and hit by a brick. An ambulance comes and Detective Jo and Soo-ah drive to the scene. Gi-seob gets annoyed by Soo-ah's constant nagging, and on the day of his release, storms out in anger. When he reaches the nearly-empty subway station, he sees Soo-ah on the other side and then sees her ride the subway followed by the killer. He calls her on her phone and tells her urgently that the killer is in front of her. As he runs to catch up with her, she goes on
FaceTime
FaceTime is a Proprietary software, proprietary videotelephony product developed by Apple Inc. FaceTime is available on supported iOS mobile devices running iOS 4 and later and Mac computers that run and later. FaceTime supports any iOS devic ...
and shows him her location and surroundings. He guides her out of the subway and to safety, as well as her
seeing eye dog
Guide dogs (colloquially known in the US as seeing-eye dogs) are assistance dogs trained to lead blind or visually impaired people around obstacles. Although dogs can be trained to navigate various obstacles, they are red–green colour bl ...
, Seul-gi. She reaches into her handbag and sprays the killer's eyes with her pepper spray and runs off with Seul-gi. When she reaches the elevator, she thought that she'd be safe, but the killer quickly gets in and kills Seul-gi.
When Soo-ah wakes up, she asks for her seeing dog, but Gi-seob hands her the blood-stained leash. At home she gets a call from an unknown number. The caller warns her away from the case. "You can't see me, but I'm watching you." A few days later, Detective Jo finds the killer. They get into a violent fight, in which the detective dies and the killer drives off. Meanwhile, Gi-seob and Soo-ah visit the orphanage again when they're asked to watch over it while the school director takes the children out. The killer enters the living room and lights a cigarette and listens to some music. Soo-ah, annoyed by the music, goes downstairs to turn it off. She reprimands Gi-seob for playing it, but smells the cigarette smoke. Gi-seob goes upstairs and fights the killer while Soo-ah runs away, reaching the car and breaking its windows with the motion sensor. The killer attacks her but she hits him on the head, making him fall unconscious. The police find Detective Jo's body and other evidence implicating Myung-jin as the killer and he is put in jail. Soo-ah is re-admitted to the police academy and graduates, while Gi-seob also enrolls in the police academy.
Cast
*
Kim Ha-neul
Kim Ha-neul (; born February 21, 1978) is a South Korean actress. After starting her career as a model, she rose to fame by starring in romantic-comedy films ''My Tutor Friend'' (2003) and ''Too Beautiful to Lie'' (2004) and the action-comedy f ...
as Min Soo-ah
** Kim Soo-jin as young Soo-ah
*
Yoo Seung-ho
Yoo Seung-ho (; born August 17, 1993) is a South Korean actor who rose to fame as a child actor in the film '' The Way Home'' (2002). Since then, he has starred in many television series and movie films as a child and teenager.
After his two-yea ...
as Kwon Gi-seob
*
Jo Hee-bong
Jo Hee-bong (born August 23, 1971) is a South Korean actor. Hee-bong began his acting career in 1997 as part of the theatre troupe Bipa (비파). He later became known as a supporting actor onscreen, in films such as '' Blind'' (2011) and ''Inco ...
as Detective Jo
* Yang Young-jo as Myung-jin
*
Park Bo-gum
Park Bo-gum (; born June 16, 1993) is a South Korean actor. He gained recognition for his diverse range of roles in film and television, notably, a psychopathic lawyer in '' Hello Monster'' (2015), a genius Go player in ''Reply 1988'' (2015– ...
as Dong-hyun, Soo-ah's younger brother
(career debut)
**
Sung Yu-bin as young Dong-hyun
* Dolly as Seul-gi
* Sa-hee as Jung-yeon
*
Kim Mi-kyung
Kim Mi-kyung (born October 14, 1963) is a South Korean actress. She is most active as a supporting actress
A supporting actor is an actor who performs a role in a play or film below that of the leading actor(s), and above that of a bit part. ...
as school director
*
Choi Phillip
Choi Phillip, born Choi Pil-soon (born 18 August 1979) is a South Korean actor.- - -
Filmography
Television series
Film
Variety show
Theater
References
External links
*
*
Choi Phillip Fan Cafeat Daum
*
*
*
1979 births
L ...
as detective from Information Section
* Won Pung-yeon as Detective 1
* Jeon Joo-woo as Detective 4
* Kim Kyeong-ik as Doctor 2
* Baek Ik-nam as owner of car
* Han Yeo-wool as woman having an abortion
Reception
Critical reception
Derek Elley of ''
Film Business Asia'' gave the film a 6 out of 10, saying it "has effective moments but doesn't fully realise its potential."
Awards
Remakes
China
A Chinese
remake titled ''
The Witness'' starring
Yang Mi
Yang Mi (, born 12 September 1986) is a Chinese actress and singer. She made her acting debut in historical television series '' Tang Ming Huang'', and later received recognition for her leading roles in various television series such as ''Wang Zha ...
and
Luhan
Lu Han (Chinese: 鹿晗, born April 20, 1990), also known mononymously as Luhan, is a Chinese singer and actor. He was a member of the South Korean-Chinese boy group Exo and its sub-group Exo-M, before leaving the group in October 2014. Tha ...
and also directed by Ahn Sang-hoon, finished filming in 2015. It was released in
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
on October 30.
Japan
A Japanese remake titled , directed by Junichi Mori and starring
Riho Yoshioka
is a Japanese actress. She first attracted attention after landing a role in a television series, '' Here Comes Asa'' on NHK in 2016. She received the Elan d'or Award for Newcomer of the Year in 2018.
She won the Newcomer of the Year Award at ...
,
Mahiro Takasugi
is a Japanese actor who is affiliated with Posters. He is best known for his role as the character Mitsuzane Kureshima/Kamen Rider Ryugen from the Kamen Rider series ''Kamen Rider Gaim
is a Japanese television series, a tokusatsu drama that is ...
, Kōji Ōkura, and Kōdai Asaka, was released in
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
on 20 September 2019.
India
In
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
the film has remade in two languages; in
Tamil language
Tamil (; ' , ) is a Dravidian language natively spoken by the Tamil people of South Asia. Tamil is an official language of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, the sovereign nations of Sri Lanka and Singapore, and the Indian territory of Pudu ...
as ''
Netrikann
''Netrikann'' () is an 2021 Indian Tamil-language crime thriller film directed by Milind Rau. The film stars Nayanthara with Ajmal Ameer, K. Manikandan, and Saran Shakthi in supporting roles. A remake of the 2011 South Korean film '' Blind'' ...
'' (lit. The Third Eye) starring
Nayanthara and in Hindi with the
same name starring
Sonam Kapoor
Sonam Kapoor Ahuja (; born 9 June 1985) is an Indian actress who works in Hindi films. She has won a National Film Award and a Filmfare Award, and from 2012 to 2016, she appeared in ''Forbes India'' Celebrity 100 list based on her income and ...
and directed by Shome Makhija. The Hindi version wrapped up filming on February 13, 2021.
The Tamil version was released on
Disney+ Hotstar on 13 August 2021 and Hindi version was scheduled to release on
OTT platform, but it is now shelved.
References
External links
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blind (2011 film)
2011 films
2011 crime thriller films
South Korean crime thriller films
2010s Korean-language films
South Korean films remade in other languages
Police detective films
2010s serial killer films
Films about blind people
South Korean serial killer films
Next Entertainment World films
2010s South Korean films