A disgraced ex-policeman turned pimp Jung-ho (Kim Yoon-suk) catches the serial killer responsible for the disappearance of two of his employees. When the police believe both women to be dead Jung-ho finds himself in a race against time, with only twelve hours to find evidence that one of the girls, Mi-jin, is still alive before police are forced to release the killer.
The film is clever in the fact that instead of having it a straight up cop vs killer scenario our hero is actually not a nice man, he’s a pimp who was an ex cop and he’s determined to find out why, as he believes, one of his clients is kidnapping his girls and so sets out to track them down.
Je Yeong-min (Ha Jung-woo), plays the client in question who is a stone cold killer, in fact our first introduction leaves you under no illusion that this guy enjoys to kill as he takes a hammer to a skull, and as it is with korean cinema, they don’t shy away from the violence as the blood seeps through the cracks on the bathroom floor.
What then follows is Jung-ho trying to track down where the killer has taken Mi-jin not telling the audience if she’s alive or dead in a series of cut scenes keeps the suspense going as he frantically tracks her down. When the police have to let Je Yeong-min go due to lack of evidence a frantic chase starts to hunt him down with the inevitable confrontation that is gritty, bloody and brutal.
Another Korean classic that was the feature debut from *The Wailing* and *The Yellow Sea* writer and director Na Hong-jin.
