ShangLuda Admirable film.

Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Numerootno A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

Philippa All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Ana The movie is about the policewoman who is dislocated to the small S.Korean town/village after her personal problems (that caused scandal in her professional life) in Seoul.The town, she settles in, is small; Everybody knows everyone. From the first look, the place looks peaceful with friendly, provincial locals. As she spends some time there, she spots disturbing issues that locals have not problem with. The town is so corrupt and blindsided that even the local police fails to act against it. One of such issues is with the underage girl who is under constant physical and mental abuse from the member of her own family.So the new cop faces a challenge: do something against the crime, or not? What if doing the right means harming her image and personal life? The story further focuses on her decisions mixed with her personal struggles and problems with past relationships.The story has plot twists and despite the slow sleep and somewhat mellow vibe, never bore you.I gave the movie 7/10 and would call it a decent movie unlike my fellow countryman whose review I read about this movie :)

GyatsoLa I just caught this film at the Dublin Film Festival. I always make a point of seeing any Korean film coming up - I love the way Korean film makers simply defy any notion of genre, they seem to delight in twisting expectations.This film didn't disappoint. At first, it follows the old plot line of a disgraced police officer, forced out to a dead end town to repair his (or in this case her) reputation. In this case, Young-Nam, a promising officer has been sent to an economically dying coastal town to keep her head down after an apparent scandal as she was outed as having a relationship with another woman. The film heads towards melodrama territory as she reluctantly starts to take care of an abused local girl, the daughter of a man seen by the other officers as too important to the town to take too hard a line with - they are content to hand out endless warnings without actually doing anything to stop him. Young-Nam is clearly unwilling to get too close to the girl, but finds it impossible not to offer her a safe refuge. From here, the film twists unexpectedly into some dark and weird territory as rather predictably, her good deed comes back to haunt her. The film does go into places where most films won't thread, in particular that difficult issue of the innocence or otherwise of abused children. But it is handled very sensitively, without shying away from hard questions.The film is not perfect - the performances are a little uneven (it looks like many of the minor characters are played by amateurs). Doona Bae is of course the big name in the cast, and she is, as always, a charismatic and powerful presence. She is one of those rare actors who can hold the screen even when showing little outward emotion. In truth, although she is entirely central to the film, the character is not as fleshed out as much as I think she should be - more the scripts fault than the actors I think. She is clearly a deeply unhappy woman, but its not obvious why she rejects the possibility of a happier life with her former lover. There are also some issues with pacing of the film, it seems a little uncertain at times, perhaps not surprising as the director is a first timer (but I have to say, she shows great promise). The film rolls on to a surprisingly (for a Korean film) conventional ending, but there are enough twists and ambiguity to make it quite a satisfying finish.

GlennInWinnipeg What an outstanding movie. The cast .. wow all so strong and believable. The characters that stick with you are the police chief (Doona Bae, what a talent that boosts everyone's performance here I think), the little girl Do-Hee(Sae-ron Kim, perfect performance), and the main protagonist(Hie-jin Jang) is very strong which makes the thing work. I also thought the Indian man's strong performance made that entire part of the story work (comes in about 2/3 into the movie).You will have to watch it, but the story has so many levels of plot and surprises. When people say it keeps you engrossed from the beginning to the end they are not kidding. Every scene had me thinking and pondering how I have seen this type of thing happen, and also how I have not seen the truth of matters because my perception was being manipulated -- giving in to stereotypes and lies as if they were actually true.The other aspect is that this is a very quiet film -- even the music is quiet. I was thinking during the credit -- I'm amazed such a quiet movie kept my attention -- but the reason is that the story and people are so darn interesting.I highly recommend it. I hope it gets some theatre or DVD/BluRay release in Region 1.

Hez The performances of the leads were very good. Bae Doo-na was the draw-card for me, and this the most complex character I have seen her play. The lesbian and immigrant worker sub-plots are interesting. The film didn't shy away from the shock and sensation of Doo-hee's self-harm, but empathised with her as well, an admirable combination. The denouement, staying with the chief, away from her father, was what Doo-hee deserved. Too often damaged characters in film are either not given any agency (they are innocent victims), or are not offered any redemption (they are crazy), but this film is not like that.However, it does spend time in that clichéd territory. The film is boring after the chief gets locked up for child molestation. It was a predictable plot twist, but really not related to the main emotional action of the film. For the most part the film skillfully balanced exploitation of it's sexual themes with real emotional content, but this sensational hijack of the second half meant that when the ending finally came it felt underdeveloped, even though it was the ending the film needed.Instead of this waste of time, more could have been put into the underdeveloped sub-plots. What there was of these was well done, but there just wasn't enough. The lesbian plot could stand as it is if the film was just shorter, but the illegal immigrant plot was tacked on. The rest of the film needed to fit around it more. I can't imagine how it could have done this, but it would have made for a much more interesting film.Overall however, this film is well worth seeing.