''The Chaser'' () is a 2008 South Korean

action thriller film Action film is a film genre in which the protagonist is thrust into a series of events that typically involve violence and physical feats. The genre tends to feature a mostly resourceful hero struggling against incredible odds, which include life ...

starring

Kim Yoon-seok Kim Yoon-seok (born January 21, 1967) is a South Korean actor, film director and screenwriter. Kim began his career in theater and it subsequently led him to be cast in minor roles in films and television dramas. His breakout role came as the vi ...

and

Ha Jung-woo Kim Sung-hoon (born March 11, 1978), better known as Ha Jung-woo (), is a South Korean actor, film director, screenwriter and film producer. One of the highest grossing actors in South Korea, Ha's starring films have accumulated more than 100 mil ...

. It was directed by

Na Hong-jin Na Hong-jin (, born 1974) is a South Korean film director, producer and screenwriter. Na has won a multitude of awards with his films and most known for violent thriller and horror characteristics in his films. Na first became recognised after ...

in his directorial debut. Inspired by real-life Korean serial killer Yoo Young-chul, certain scenes were shot on location around Mangwon-dong in the

Mapo District Mapo District () is one of the 25 districts of Seoul, South Korea. Mapo has a population of 381,330 (2015) and has a geographic area of 23.87 km2 (9.22 sq mi), and is divided into 24 '' dong'' (administrative neighborhoods). Mapo is located in w ...

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...

Plot

Joong-ho is a dishonest ex-detective turned

pimp Procuring or pandering is the facilitation or provision of a prostitute or other sex worker in the arrangement of a sex act with a customer. A procurer, colloquially called a pimp (if male) or a madam (if female, though the term pimp has still ...

who is in financial trouble because two of his

prostitutes Prostitution is the business or practice of engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, non-penet ...

have gone missing. One night, he commands Mi-jin to service a customer, despite her protests over her sickness. Joong-ho then realizes this customer was the last to see his missing girls. Believing that this customer is trafficking his women, Joong-ho nevertheless sends Mi-jin in so that she can forward the customer's address to him. Joong-ho contacts his old

police task force The Police Tactical Unit (PTU) is a paramilitary specialist unit of the Singapore Police Force and comes under the direct command of the Special Operations Command. Based in Queenstown, it is the main anti-rioting and disaster-management unit ...

for help, but they cannot assist because the

mayor of Seoul The Mayor of Seoul () is the chief executive of Seoul Metropolitan Government, Seoul being the capital and largest city of South Korea. The position is historically one of the most powerful in the country, charged with managing an annual budget ...

, whom they were guarding, has been attacked with feces; this results in the police suffering a media firestorm. The customer, Yeong-min, takes Mi-jin back to a house but Mi-jin fails to contact Joong-ho due to the bathroom having no cell service. Yeong-min binds Mi-jin, but her struggles prevent her murder with a chisel, so Yeong-min hits her with a hammer, knocking her out. Just then, an elderly couple from the local church arrive, inquiring about the real house owner, Mr. Park; they recognize his dog. Yeong-min then invites the elderly couple in and murders them. Joong-ho, only aware of the customer's district, conducts a search. Yeong-min tries to ditch the couple's car, but collides with Joong-ho's car. Joong-ho's suspicions are aroused as Yeong-min has blood on his shirt and refuses to give his phone number. Joong-ho calls the customer's number and Yeong-min's phone rings. Yeong-min flees but is caught and beaten by Joong-ho. Both men are arrested by a local cop. At the station, Yeong-min casually admits that he committed nine murders. Competing police divisions argue over who will investigate the high-profile unsolved murders in the area. Despite the confession, the police have no physical evidence so they cannot detain Yeong-min for long. Yeong-min reveals Mi-jin is alive, but the police doubt it. Joong-ho goes to Mi-jin's apartment to collect DNA samples, and from there he takes Mi-jin's daughter Eun-ji with him while he follows up a lead in Yeong-min's hometown. Joong-ho learns that Yeong-min was jailed for three years for lobotomizing his own nephew. Another prostitute informs Joong-ho that Yeong-min is impotent. When Yeong-min is questioned about his impotency being part of his motive, he attacks the interrogator. Joong-ho's assistant finds a room where Yeong-min had once lived; Joong-ho discovers religious drawings on the room's walls. Eun-ji wanders off while following a woman who looks like her mother, then meets with an accident and is brought to hospital by Joong-ho. Yeong-min provides a false lead after being again beaten by Joong-ho. The prosecutor discovers Yeong-min's injuries and demands Yeong-min's release, refusing to wait for DNA test results. Saying that Yeong-min's arrest will be seen as the police's attempt to save face, the prosecutor demands for Joong-ho's arrest for injuring Yeong-min. Joong-ho is handcuffed and attacks his former teammates to escape; one of them frees him. Meanwhile, Mi-jin freed herself and escaped from the house. Badly injured, she finds help at a nearby corner shop, and hides in the back. The police are informed, but the nearest officers are fast asleep. Yeong-min stops at the same shop to buy cigarettes. Not knowing Yeong-min is the attacker himself, the shopkeeper tells him about Mi-jin's story, asking him to stay to protect them from the attacker (which is himself) while they await the police. Yeong-min uses the shopkeeper's hammer to murder both her and Mi-jin. Alerted by police sirens, Joong-ho arrives finding the police have cordoned off the bloody shop. Yeong-min escapes off-camera back to Mr. Park's house, where he stores Mi-jin's severed head and hands in a fish tank. Yeong-min buries the elderly couple and kills Mr. Park's dog. The humiliated police throw everything into the search for Yeong-min, while the story is leaked to the public. A distraught Joong-ho follows a lead to the local church, then notices that a church statue matches the drawings he had seen in Yeong-min's old room. As Mr. Park was the sculptor and Yeong-min his "assistant", the

deacon A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian churches, such as the Catholic Churc ...

points Joong-ho to Mr. Park's house. Joong-ho enters the residence, interrupting Yeong-min's departure. They fight, with Joong-ho ultimately getting the upper hand, but the police arrive and restrain Joong-ho from killing Yeong-min. Yeong-Min is taken away while the police excavate the yard, finding several bodies. The film ends with Joong-ho sitting silently by Eun-ji in her hospital room, holding her hand.

Cast

as Eom Joong-ho, pimp and former police officer *

as Je Yeong-min, serial killer *

Seo Young-hee Seo Young-hee (born June 13, 1979) is a South Korean actress. She is best known for her supporting role in thriller ''The Chaser'' (2008) and her award-winning lead role in horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or d ...

as Kim Mi-jin, prostitute * Koo Bon-woong as Oh-jot, Eom Joong-ho's assistant *

Kim Yoo-jung Kim Yoo-jung (; born September 22, 1999) is a South Korean actress. She debuted as a model for a confectionery brand at the age of four. After her acting debut in 2003, she became one of the best known child actresses in Korea since then, aft ...

as Eun-ji, Mi-jin's daughter *

Jung In-gi Jung In-gi (born September 12, 1966) is a South Korean actor. Jung made his acting debut in 1990, and has remained active in mainstream and independent film as well as television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunic ...

as Detective Lee *

Park Hyo-joo Park Hyo-joo (born October 8, 1982) is a South Korean actress. She is best known for her leading role in the period Period may refer to: Common uses * Era, a length or span of time * Full stop (or period), a punctuation mark Arts, entertainm ...

as Detective Oh *

Choi Jung-woo Choi Jung-woo (born February 17, 1957) is a South Korean actor. He began his acting career in theater, then became active as a supporting actor in film and television, notably in the sitcom A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or sit ...

as Chief of Police * Min Kyeong-jin as Team chief *

Oh Yeon-ah Oh Yeon-ah (born Kim Mi-ae on December 1, 1981) is a South Korean actress. She has played many supporting roles in both films and television series A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a televisi ...

as Sung-hee * Kim Sun-young as Ji-yeong

Release

Box office

''The Chaser'' was released in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

on February 14, 2008."The Best Selling Films of 2008"
''Koreanfilm.org''. Retrieved 25 September 2008. On its opening weekend it grossed and was ranked second at the box office, behind American film ''

Jumper Jumper or Jumpers may refer to: Clothing *Jumper (sweater), a long-sleeve article of clothing; also called a top, pullover, or sweater **A waist-length top garment of dense wool, part of the Royal Navy uniform and the uniform of the United State ...

''. It then topped the box office for three consecutive weekends, and as of June 1, 2008, had grossed a total of ."South Korea Box: Office May 30 – June 1, 2008"
''

Box Office Mojo Box Office Mojo is an American website that tracks box-office revenue in a systematic, algorithmic way. The site was founded in 1998 by Brandon Gray, and was bought in 2008 by IMDb, which itself is owned by Amazon. History Brandon Gray began ...

''. Retrieved 25 September 2008. ''The Chaser'' received a total of 5,120,630 admissions nationwide, which made it the third most popular film in South Korea in 2008, after ''

The Good, the Bad, the Weird ''The Good, the Bad, the Weird'' () is a 2008 South Korean Western action film directed by Kim Jee-woon and starring Song Kang-ho, Lee Byung-hun, and Jung Woo-sung.' The film is inspired by the 1966 Italian Spaghetti Western ''The Good, the Bad ...

'' and ''

Scandal Makers ''Scandal Makers'' () is a 2008 South Korean film written and directed by Kang Hyeong-cheol and starring Cha Tae-hyun, Park Bo-young and Wang Seok-hyeon. This was director Kang's first film and the highest grossing Korean film of the year. The ...

''.

Critical response

On review aggregator

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, ''The Chaser'' holds an approval rating of 80%, based on 30 reviews, and an average rating of 6.7/10. Its consensus reads, "A frantic and taut Korean serial killer thriller. One classy, if bloody and messy, gut wrencher of a movie." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the film has a weighted average score of 64 out of 100, based on 11 critics, indicating "generally positive reviews".

Awards and nominations

Remakes and similar productions

In March 2008, the

remake A remake is a film, television series, video game, song or similar form of entertainment that is based upon and retells the story of an earlier production in the same medium—e.g., a "new version of an existing film". A remake tells the same ...

rights to ''The Chaser'' were bought by

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

for .

William Monahan William J. Monahan (born November 3, 1960) is an American screenwriter and novelist. His second produced screenplay was ''The Departed'', a film that earned him a Writers Guild of America Award and Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. Wr ...

was in early discussions to write the script, with Leonardo DiCaprio named as a potential star; no deals have been set. Monahan and DiCaprio were both involved in

Martin Scorsese Martin Charles Scorsese ( , ; born November 17, 1942) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter and actor. Scorsese emerged as one of the major figures of the New Hollywood era. He is the recipient of List of awards and nominatio ...

's ''

The Departed ''The Departed'' is a 2006 American epic crime thriller film directed by Martin Scorsese and written by William Monahan. It is both a remake of the 2002 Hong Kong film ''Infernal Affairs'' and also loosely based on the real-life Boston Winter ...

'', a successful remake of the classic

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

thriller ''

Infernal Affairs ''Infernal Affairs'' is a 2002 Hong Kong action thriller film co-directed by Andrew Lau and Alan Mak. Jointly written by Mak and Felix Chong, it stars Andy Lau, Tony Leung, Anthony Wong, Eric Tsang, Sammi Cheng and Kelly Chen. The film fo ...

'' . '' Murder 2'' , a 2011 Indian Bollywood psychological thriller film, is an unofficial remake of ''The Chaser''.

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Chaser, The 2008 films 2008 action thriller films 2000s crime action films 2008 crime thriller films South Korean action thriller films South Korean crime thriller films South Korean crime action films South Korean serial killer films South Korean detective films South Korean neo-noir films Police detective films 2000s chase films Films set in Seoul Films shot in Seoul Films shot in Busan South Korean chase films Films directed by Na Hong-jin Best Picture Grand Bell Award winners Showbox films 2000s Korean-language films 2000s psychological horror films 2008 directorial debut films South Korean films based on actual events Grand Prize Paeksang Arts Award (Film) winners 2000s South Korean films