The Chaser

Name: The Chaser
Genre: Thriller
Released: December 30, 2009
Duration: 125 min
Rating: 64

2009

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Generally favorable reviews based on 11 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 43 Ratings

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8.0	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 43 Ratings

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The Chaser

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Movie Details & Credits

IFC Films | Release Date: December 30, 2009 | Not Rated

Summary: A cash-strapped pimp and former police detective draws upon the skills of his old job to track down his missing stable of prostitutes.

Director: Hong-jin Na

Genre(s): Thriller

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 125 min

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Critic Reviews

Roger Ebert

The Chaser is an expert serial-killer film from South Korea and a poster child for what a well-made thriller looked like in the classic days. Read full review

Joseph Jon Lanthier

The opaque ethics of The Chaser elide the reductive nature of binary pairs, focusing instead on the far more piquant complexity of human behavior. Read full review

Aaron Hillis

Na keeps pulling the rug out from under us, and his brawny genre exercise doubles nicely as a scream of social anguish, since most of the twisted screwups occur at the hands of bumbling or corrupt cops. Read full review

Mike Hale

While it could stand to lose 20 minutes and several plot twists, Mr. Na’s debut manages to be thought-provoking and adventurous while providing solid thrills. Read full review

Maggie Lee

The tight time-frame gives the excellent cast a chance to play with intensity, making even old genre hands hold their breath and feel their minds sufficiently shaken up. Read full review

Empire Nick de Semlyen

Some of the tension drains from a slow middle act, but it remains a gripping tale of sleuth-work and moral awakening. Read full review

Time Out London David Jenkins

The best moments come with two bravura and ultra-realistic chase sequences through grotty, dimly lit back allies, and director Na Hong-Jin also does his best to toy with expectations whenever possible. This playfulness, however, backfires massively in the second half when coincidence and unforeseen consequence conspire uneasily with bloody, messy results. Read full review

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User Reviews

Meth-dude

Jun 8, 2020

Tense, powerful, emotional, thrilling and depressing, this gritty thriller manages to grab your attention in it's first minutes and never lets it go. If you're in the mood for a dark, sad and original thriller, you won't be disappointed.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

M7AMD

Jul 9, 2023

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. It was a great watch, but I had some issues with this movie, although it still left me with some great impressions.

There were so many scenes that were exaggerated a bit though i would say some of them were funny, and some plot holes like for example why would you go to different places looking for his house when he and the girl he was with stopped at the exact location the detective was at!! It makes more sense that the search would have been where the girl's car was found, another stupid plot was when the girl escaped why would she run into the convenience store not calling out for neighbors to help her or people walking in the streets and even when she had the opportunity to call someone she chose to call her pimp and not the police!!! Lol i understand it makes for great tense and drama but come on so many movies did that and it still pisses me off.

I do like the twist at the end though, and i would recommend watching it, if someone never watched any Korean movies I'm sure he will probably enjoy it more than I did.

7/10… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

clem666

Jun 9, 2021

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. There generally is something tricky in the pace of Korean movies and 'The Chaser' does not miss this point. Its rhythm is very jerky because some scenes last far too long without bringing much content to the story while others are rushed and overcut despite their interesting emotional value or their notable contribution to the depth of the story or of a character. The concept of time is particularly strange, as each event seems to follow directly the previous one without letting us believe that it is possible. Despite the ellipses, the story seems to unfold in the space of a maximum of two days, which gives an impression of unreality to the actions. Those ellipses are notably imperfect. In overall I found the story quite confusing: if the main one (the girl to be saved) is too simple, the rest (internal conflicts within the police unit, abuse of power by the leaders and impact of the media on the criminal case to name a few) seems to be mixed up in a really strange order with no clear purpose.

It is interesting to have empathy for the different characters even if the main one can't stop running everywhere and fighting everyone without drinking, sleepin or eating. The acting is amazing if you look at charcters separately but as a whole you will notice the fact that the multiple bonds linking them to each others may be honestly unattractive and meaningless. The chase scenes are as great as the overall aesthetic of the film.

In conclusion 'The Chaser' is great as it brings fresh air in the classic action and thriller movies but where it manages to get brighter it may also get to be sadly predictable and redundant. I disagree with the central tendency of the film that tries so hard to lead us to think that only violence can modulate injustice, and especially the fact that the film pushes us by all means to endorse such behavior.… Expand

1 of 1 users found this helpful10

Broyax

Apr 23, 2020

Décidément, les films coréens soufflent le chaud et le froid et vont d'excès en excès... y compris lorsqu'ils font du thriller à l'américaine, c'est-à-dire lorsqu'ils construisent un film entier sur des fondations en gruyère, c'est-à-dire un scénario plein de trous et de raccourcis,Décidément, les films coréens soufflent le chaud et le froid et vont d'excès en excès... y compris lorsqu'ils font du thriller à l'américaine, c'est-à-dire lorsqu'ils construisent un film entier sur des fondations en gruyère, c'est-à-dire un scénario plein de trous et de raccourcis, d'incohérences et d'invraisemblances, de heureux ou malheureux hasards qui tombent comme autant de cheveux sur la soupe... et s'entrechoquent n'importe comment...

Cela dit, ce n'est pas bien grave : plein de thrillers hollywoodiens sont construits comme ça et de temps en temps, ça peut marcher, ça peut "tenir" et même des fois carrément... briller contre toute attente ! tout dépend de la force ou de la faiblesse de notre incrédulité finalement... et des forces mises en oeuvre par le film pour la battre, cette incrédulité ou la "suspendre" au moins temporairement !

Or, dans The Chaser avec cet ancien flic devenu proxénète qui se rend compte un peu tard que ses gagneuses disparaissent (sic !) on est plongé directement dans l'incrédulité totale, laquelle cependant cède à force des multiples facéties de ce drôle de personnage et des évènements qui se télescopent déjà allègrement comme dans une comédie certes macabre mais ô combien délirante, fût-elle à l'insu total de son plein gré !

Bref, on rigole bien et assez souvent, devant ce qui semble une ironie des plus mordantes... et en même temps, on s'inquiète tout de même (il s'agit d'un polar à psychopathe après tout...) car le film fait miroiter un espoir ou plusieurs espoirs pour mieux nous les anéantir plus tard, car après la phase "maniaque", le film passe à sa phase "dépressive" et cela, jusqu'à la fin avec la guimauve syndicale qui l'accompagne.

Et là, il nous donne donc des coups de marteau sur la tête, de façon répétée, dépressif à mort jusqu'à la mort et la déprime totale : tout est noir, il n'y a plus d'espoir, les flics sont des cons etc, etc...

Quel dommage d'avoir pris une telle voie... et personnellement je trouve ça inacceptable. Déjà que rien ne tient debout là-dedans mais en plus il nous prend pour des cons avec ses aberrations de scénario dépressif ! oui, quel dommage de tourner ainsi aussi mal; dans une telle caricature de drame... ridicule en fin de compte. Parce qu'on tenait vraiment quelque chose pendant à peu près une heure... Ou presque.… Expand

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

InTrippyEntropy

Jun 19, 2019

I love South Korean crme thrillers. But the Chaser is by turns gruesome and amateurish. It is not redeemed by the foot chases or gore.

1 of 1 users found this helpful10

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