Latest / The Kulturecast / “I was a detective once. I know how to deal with you.”

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“I was a detective once. I know how to deal with you.” · The Kulturecast

0:04
Speaker 1: Weary way.
0:48
Speaker 2: Hailed by critics this year's international box office sensation. The
0:56
Chaser is being remade by the team that brought you
1:02
The Departy, but there's only ever one original, a fallen
1:15
cop working on the other side of the law. In
1:19
sixty minutes, he had found the killer. Now he has
1:23
twelve hours to find the next example The Chaser.
1:47
Speaker 3: You really like serial killers, huh, Ryan.
1:49
Speaker 4: For some reason? Yes, but this one is so like
1:53
different because it's so many different types to peel back
1:56
the layers of this parfait.
1:58
Speaker 3: The parfay of the parfait of intensity known as Korean cinema.
2:03
Because my god, I have not seen enough Korean Oh wow, Okay, yeah,
2:10
so I you know, I spent time since we had
2:14
this one on the books, because we were supposed to
2:17
record it like a week ago, and so we recording
2:20
about a week later, and so I've actually had some
2:22
time to watch more Korean movies in the interim, and
2:24
so I feel much more prepared than I would have,
2:29
which is good. I was prepared, but I'm more prepared,
2:32
which is to say that I watched like five more
2:35
supremely depressing Korean film. Yes, because that level of real
2:42
intensity is hard to replicate outside of Korean cinema, like
2:47
Korean cinema for whatever reason, like it just feels like
2:50
there's no punches being pulled, no, which is interesting because
2:54
the Korean people are so like warm and friendly and
2:58
their cinema is very.
2:59
Speaker 4: Co well half of them are warm and friendly.
3:02
Speaker 3: Yeah, fair well, yeah, I guess that's but I don't
3:06
know what North Korean cinema looks like to be fair.
3:09
Speaker 4: So, oh, well, we know about one of the movies
3:11
what the interview pasari. It's a film that has gotten
3:15
out like a anyways, we don't need to get in.
3:18
Speaker 3: I didn't know that that was the thing.
3:19
Speaker 4: Yeah, there's a movie I think it's from the fifties
3:21
or sixties that has gotten out somehow and like you
3:26
would never be able to see like a release of
3:28
it or anything like that, but it can be found online.
3:30
Speaker 3: Like Song of the South.
3:31
Speaker 4: Huh, it's kind of yet, we'll say, less black people.
3:36
Speaker 3: If it was being shot in North Korea, that's almost
3:38
a given guaranteed, especially then. Yeah, especially then though. I
3:42
was gonna say, like, if you want to talk about
3:44
a country on the planet that has no black people,
3:46
it's got to be North Korea right like wild So
3:50
speaking of Korea, Ryan picked The Chaser as another episode
3:54
of the Culture Cast for his months to talk about.
3:56
And so, Ryan two thousand and eight's The Chaser, directed
3:59
by Not Hong Jin, is not a movie that I
4:02
had heard of, but now I am very well acquainted with.
4:05
So I am going to ask you, Ryan Vrel of
4:08
The Disconnected, who is my guest on the Culture Cast?
4:10
Why oh why did you pick The Chaser? A film
4:13
that never got remade with Leonardo DiCaprio, though they apparently
4:16
were going to talk about doing it and had been
4:18
talking about doing it for years. Though I guess it
4:20
could still happen maybe.
4:22
Speaker 4: So our dear friend doctor will Dotson had mentioned this
4:25
one in passing to me like six months after, we admit,
4:29
and I had never even had an opportunity to watch it.
4:32
It did not come across anything. And then a company
4:35
that I've grown more and more fond of over the
4:37
last year or so, a company called Umbrella Entertainment out
4:41
of Australia has been focusing pretty heavily actually on Korean
4:45
and Asian cinema in general, and they put out a
4:49
pretty wonderful release of the Chaser and I said, well,
4:53
this looks to be the one to get. It's probably
4:54
not going to get much better than this, because I
4:56
don't know of anybody else working on this, And so
4:59
I picked it up and put it in and immediately went,
5:02
Dear God, where has this been my entire life? This
5:04
movie is so great. I have been trying to evangelize
5:09
appreciation for this film since I watched it, and knowing
5:12
that you had not seen it, I just wanted us together,
5:15
hopefully with me still not knowing how you feel about it,
5:18
to delight in what this film is able to pull
5:21
off in a movie that when you call it the Chaser,
5:24
you're expecting chasing, and yet I'm always surprised by how
5:28
much chasing is actually in this field.
5:31
Speaker 3: I would say the chasing aspects of the movie are
5:33
rather well done.
5:34
Speaker 4: Yeah they are.
5:35
Speaker 3: Yeah. I had never seen this movie before. I had
5:38
seen some Korean cinema before, but I had not seen
5:41
the Korean cinema that I needed to see before seeing
5:44
this movie. I had not seen. I saw the Devil,
5:46
which I think was probably something that I need, and
5:49
I know that I saw the Devil came out after this,
5:51
but I saw the Devil I think is in a
5:53
lot of ways the better version of this movie in
5:56
terms of like, and I don't want to say, like
5:58
this movie's not good, but I think that I saw
6:00
The Devil as the more approachable version of this movie
6:03
in a lot of ways, Like I saw The Devil
6:04
as a movie that, like what it's doing is a
6:08
little less messy in execution, because this movie is a
6:10
little messy in its execution. I think that's intentional, though
6:14
a very intention especially with the name like the Chaser,
6:17
and especially with who Kim Yun Sook plays the lead character,
6:22
the Jungho, the pimp and former police detective, Like it's
6:27
supposed to be a messy movie, and his life is messy,
6:30
and the way he conducts himself is messy, and he's
6:32
a messy person, and the movie is messy, and I
6:34
saw The Devil is not. I saw The Devil is
6:37
essentially what would happen if a serial killer killed James
6:39
Bond's fiance. That is literally what that movie is, which
6:44
is why that movie is so awesome, And it's also
6:47
why the movie is horrifying as well, Like.
6:49
Speaker 4: It's very straightforward horrifying.
6:51
Speaker 3: Yeah, and the conversation it's having with the audience is
6:55
a very different one than this one is having. Because
6:57
I Saw the Devil is more about what happens when
7:00
you look into the void and you become the monster.
7:03
Like I saw the Devil, I saw the devil, the
7:05
devil saw me, you know, like you know, like being
7:07
seen by the void is you know, being driven insane
7:11
or being driven to madness is kind of what I
7:13
Saw the Devil is about. This movie is different. This
7:15
movie is more I don't think I don't think this
7:18
movie has that lofty of gold, do you know what
7:21
I mean? I think this movie is more being concerned
7:23
with being an entertaining action unless a like character study
7:27
or a look at what it means to have someone
7:29
be driven to the lengths of insanity. Like, this movie's
7:31
not interested in that. It's not a bad thing. It's
7:33
just not interesting.
7:34
Speaker 4: A part of that this we should point out right
7:37
before we get into most of it. This is the
7:39
director's first feature length film, right and to pull this
7:42
off right out of the gate is insane that you
7:46
can do this.
7:46
Speaker 3: And the fact that it's the fact that it is
7:49
so I think for me, it's so well done without
7:55
I don't know, it's so well done without feeling contrived.
7:58
Other thing, there's one Ryan, there's a scene in this
8:01
movie that feels so contrived. And there's a scene in
8:03
this movie that is so it feels like it was
8:06
written by someone who didn't write this movie, because it's
8:09
so it comes out of nowhere with the laziness. And
8:13
there's a scene where I feel like it's a contrivance
8:16
and I get what they're getting at, and I get
8:17
that it's like, again, we have this moment in this
8:19
movie and it's being played for dramatic intensity, and it's
8:22
really sad and it's like melancholic. But I loved this
8:26
movie other than one scene.
8:28
Speaker 4: Well, now I gotta hear which one. I mean.
8:29
Speaker 3: It's like the scene in the movie's known for the
8:31
scene in the gas station for the convenience store.
8:34
Speaker 4: What are you saying is contrived about this one?
8:36
Speaker 2: Though?
8:36
Speaker 3: The fact the fact that the woman goes into the
8:39
convenience store and then the woman behind the cash register
8:41
is just blurting everything out to this guy who walks
8:44
in there, who's look in the way that he is
8:46
covered in blood and shit is a little contrived to me.
8:49
And I felt like there was an easier way to
8:51
get him and her into that convenience store, and I
8:54
have no problem with him killing her. I don't have
8:56
any issue with that, Like, there's no I have no
8:58
problem with that. Like that makes perfect sense in the narrative.
9:01
I understand what it's being used to ratchet up the tension,
9:04
especially with the Junghu character of like he needs to
9:07
be given that further into reason to like write, I
9:09
just feel like there was a better way of getting
9:11
those two characters in close proximity to one another at
9:15
that point in the movie, where it feels less like
9:17
a contrivance and more like a foregone conclusion that that
9:21
was just going to happen, that their paths were inevitably
9:24
going to cross again, because the universe in these Korean
9:27
films is so uncaring and is so bleak that of
9:32
course she was going to wander into a gas station,
9:35
and of course he was going to wander in after,
9:37
and of course the woman was gonna blurt that out
9:39
like it's the there's just one contrivance too many in
9:42
that scene. Does that make sense?
9:44
Speaker 4: It does to a point. I think the only reason
9:46
I kind of overlook it is because one thing that
9:48
I truly took away from this movie is how different
9:52
Korean cinema is because in this scene, specifically, if this
9:56
was filmed by an American director on American soil or
9:59
overseas or whatever, because that's how we do things in
10:02
twenty twenty five, they they would have scripted this in
10:05
a way where the convenience store employee would have gotten
10:11
away and not even been seen. Korean Cinema's like, fuck you,
10:15
we are brutally murdering the fuck out of this woman
10:20
who's just sitting here, and you're gonna see every moment
10:22
and it's going to be hard as hell to watch.
10:24
Speaker 3: I I yeah, I don't. I again, I get it.
10:27
I get what the movie wants me to feel. I
10:30
just I'm like I said, I just I have a
10:32
hard time when coincidence coincidence in a film. I'm trying
10:37
to remember who said it. But plot coincidence is like
10:40
plot armor for the most part. Yeah, and like in
10:43
this movie, like it's not, but in a lot of ways,
10:46
like I have a different issue with it. It's just
10:49
the way the character acts in that moment is just
10:51
like it's it's unbelievably idiotic, and that's it's just like
10:55
hard for me to get my head to that point
10:57
and again like it's a minor quibble, and and going
11:00
online and reading reviews of other people that have seen
11:02
the film and talked about the film, that seems to be,
11:04
like maybe the only minor quibble with the movie is
11:08
that scene the whole like the police are in net,
11:11
that the police are morons, like and the men and
11:13
a women fail the women in the film, Like that's intentional,
11:17
And I'm on board with that because that's the filmmaker's
11:19
intent and it's by the way, well, and even if
11:22
it's not believable, like I can believe it, you know
11:25
what I mean, Like, if it's not inherently believable, I
11:28
believe that that's a possibility because we've heard of in
11:31
serial killer investigations near misses of extraordinary like Jeffrey Dahmer,
11:37
you know, and and and the and the kid getting
11:39
away and Jeffrey Dahmer being out in the alley with
11:42
a naked fifteen year old and him being allowed to
11:44
go back to his apartment with it, Like there there
11:46
is some of that in this where the the serial
11:50
killer played by ha Ha Jung wu uh young men
11:54
like he runs into Jong Hoo's car and like that's
11:58
this like again, like there are are these coincidences in
12:01
this movie. It's like they are here right, like we
12:04
see those scenes of coincidences, you know, these like awful
12:08
coincidences that keep happening, and oh this thing and then
12:11
this thing like in a lot of ways, like it's
12:13
a series of unfortunate events. Is what this movie is,
12:16
is what it feels like. So Junghu is a pimp
12:20
who keeps losing women in a part of the Mungwan
12:26
doong Mapo district of Soul, and so he gets the
12:30
bright idea to send one of his women to this
12:34
guy's house, me Jin. He sends her to young men's house,
12:38
and she gets in there and realizes very quickly that
12:41
he is in fact a serial killer. She is not
12:43
able to get the information to Jong Ho about where
12:45
she is, but he knows that she has disappeared in
12:49
this district on this evening. So he goes, I'm going
12:52
to put myself there in the hopes that being there
12:55
will allow me to find her if I can find
12:58
her at all, And that is the setup of and
13:00
where the movie goes from there, I think is the
13:03
most impressive thing about the movie for me is that
13:04
the movie does have plans within plans within plan. We
13:08
have this character, the young men character, who is a
13:11
serial killer, but we don't understand why, and we're giving
13:13
a little bit more backstory. Man, we don't understand the
13:17
parts of the story that we're not given privy to
13:20
until halfway through, that he's been doing this before, and
13:22
that he's been saying that he's a serial killer, and
13:24
that he's been admitting to these things but they haven't
13:26
been able to pin anything on him. So he just
13:28
seems like a kook that she keeps saying things like
13:31
there's so much in this movie that's going on that
13:34
the movie doesn't let on in the first fifteen minutes
13:37
that I really appreciate.
13:38
Speaker 4: Yeah, it is deep and complex, and this director has
13:42
continued to do that. I will say this one is
13:45
much easier to recommend than the last one that we
13:47
talked about, which was The House that Jack Built. This
13:50
one is a deep movie that's about much more than
13:54
just a serial killer as well. But if you like this,
13:58
or if you've heard of this and you want to
13:59
see it his other films, The Yellow Sea is incredible.
14:02
His most popular movie so far as twenty sixteen is
14:05
the Whaling. Have you seen the Whaling yet? I haven't, Okay,
14:08
So the only thing that I think is off putting
14:11
to some people is the Whaling is long. It's like
14:14
a two and a half hour movie, and it is
14:16
one of those movies that you watch and it earns
14:19
all of those two and a half hours. It is
14:23
nowhere near as straightforward as this one, which is also
14:26
nowhere near as straightforward as I Saw the Devil. Like
14:29
you said, so he has just continued to get more
14:31
and more complex as a director. But I strongly recommend,
14:35
especially you after you've seen this now, check out what
14:38
he did with the Whaling, because it is it is
14:41
a supernatural masterpiece, which I think you will appreciate well.
14:46
Speaker 3: And that's the thing about this movie. And I Saw
14:48
the Devil is like, there's no supernatural anything. This movie
14:51
is just yeah, this is just serial killers up to
14:54
no good. And you know, like and I Saw the Devil,
14:58
I think is a harder film to watch in a
15:01
lot of ways in terms of the serial killer of
15:02
it all. Like this movie, Yeah, we have the scene
15:05
with the chisel, which is unpleasant and it's not great,
15:08
but like we have, like, you know, a lot less
15:11
intense gore than I Saw The Devil. I mean, this
15:13
movie is off put This movie's off putting, don't get
15:15
me wrong. Like this movie is disturbing, I would say,
15:18
and like and you know, I think Collider has this
15:21
as the one of the most disturbing Korean films of
15:24
all time. Like, I mean, I guess I'm not really
15:27
like what because there's a serial killer and he's using
15:29
a chisel on a woman, Like I don't know, Like
15:31
some of this feels rather pass I think what's more
15:34
disturbing is the level of intensity that's brought to the performances.
15:38
Because the disturbing nature of the movie is how much
15:41
everybody's willing to commit. Because you know, the woman, the
15:44
woman playing me Jin sung YUNGHI like the level of
15:49
intensity and the shit that she's being put through in
15:51
this movie is wild. Like the acting that she is
15:55
doing it seems real, Like her performance feels real. She
15:59
is the I feel like she's honestly the starry this
16:01
movie for me, like as good as the other two
16:03
actors are. Like she's great, and she's being asked She's
16:06
being asked to do so much too and I think
16:09
it really you know, she really pulls it off because
16:11
she has to be sympathetic without being annoying, because you know, again,
16:16
like it could just be a woman screaming for two
16:18
hours and it's not that. Like she's a really empathetic character.
16:22
You know, she also has a daughter, which we get
16:25
kind of that kind of aspect of the character later
16:27
in the film as well. But I can't say enough
16:30
good things about So Young He Like, she's the emotional
16:35
core of the movie and she spends ninety percent of
16:38
the film in one location. Yeah, dirty saw esque path,
16:42
It's so true.
16:44
Speaker 4: And the whole house in general is just it's like
16:47
a pit and then on the outside there's an actual
16:50
pit that we find later.
16:51
Speaker 3: Right. It's it's interesting that South Korean cinema has this
16:57
like obsession with serial killers, yeah, because it almost strikes
17:02
me as like an American obsession with serial killer because
17:04
this film is based off of a real serial killer
17:07
case that took place in South Korea. You Young Chul
17:10
was a real serial killer who killed like twenty people
17:14
and was killing mostly prostitute and wealthy old couples, which
17:19
it's implied that he maybe killed the person whose house
17:22
he lives in. But he definitely kills a bunch of
17:24
people like he just kills with wanting a band. He
17:26
also apparently lo bottomized his nephew for no reason, just
17:30
because he's a fucking psychopath.
17:32
Speaker 4: Yeah, this movie's wild.
17:34
Speaker 3: This movie's fucked up, like it is, like again, I
17:37
go back to the house that Jack built, of it all, like,
17:38
this movie's fucked up. It doesn't like this movie shows
17:42
more than the house that Jack built does, which is
17:43
insane a lot, right, And yet I would say I
17:47
would say that this movie is any less intense of
17:49
the house that Jack.
17:50
Speaker 4: But I, well, I would say it's certainly less intense
17:53
than the house that Jack.
17:53
Speaker 3: You don't you don't think it's just as intense.
17:56
Speaker 4: No, not really, Like I you know what you just
17:59
said about it was a collider that said it was
18:01
one of the most intense. Yeah, okay, So what I
18:04
would say is for many of us, you hit like
18:07
nineteen and you come across that meme on the internet
18:11
of the Iceberg of Depravity or whatever it's called, and
18:14
you're like, there's a couple things that are like saws
18:17
above the waterline. Then you go just below and there's
18:20
everything from Cannibal Holocaust to like these crazy bat experiments. Yeah, exactly.
18:26
I feel like the house that Jack built would be
18:29
lower on the iceberg than the Chaser by like a
18:33
level or two. Even personally, I don't even know that
18:36
the Chaser should really be on there unless it's like
18:39
above the water with saw.
18:40
Speaker 3: Yeah, I guess. I don't. I don't know if I'm
18:45
a good barometer for disturbing because I've seen so many things,
18:48
like I've seen a serbian film, you know, I've seen solo,
18:52
Like I've seen those things and they're like it's not
18:54
that they're not exciting, but it's just I'm not I
18:56
don't get off on that. And so when I watch
18:58
a movie like this, I want the gore and the
19:01
violence and the disturbing stuff to have a purpose and
19:03
a point and for it to suit and serve the narrative.
19:07
And so for Collider to go, it's so disturbing, like
19:09
I guess, but it suits the narrative, Like it is
19:11
off putting, but like it's a movie about serial killer,
19:13
Like he's not killing people with kindness.
19:16
Speaker 4: It's supposed to be off putting. That's the whole point.
19:18
Speaker 3: Yeah, serial killers are off putting. They murder people like
19:21
they kill, Yeah, they kill people, Like what about this
19:24
is supposed to be pleasant? Like what about Like this
19:27
guy lives in squalor, He lives in a disgusting house
19:30
and he surrounds himself with it and doesn't see a
19:32
problem with it, and he's he's gross and everything about
19:36
him is gross, Like he is a gross person. Serial
19:39
killers are gross. Like maybe there are tidy monsters out
19:42
there like Dexter, but like, I don't believe that a
19:45
lot of them are like that. I believe that a
19:47
lot of them are like this guy, you know, just
19:49
gross and nasty and living in you know, disgusting conditions.
19:52
Speaker 4: And yeah, I.
19:53
Speaker 3: Don't agree with Collider, But then again, also you know,
19:56
Collider I think is making a list to get clicks
19:58
so well, and bulls boys on there too, Ryan, just
20:02
so you know, it's yeah, but old boys disturbing because
20:06
the twist.
20:07
Speaker 4: Right right, and to clarify, the chaser is gory, like
20:11
there's that. Yeah, it's it's violent, for sure, but it's
20:16
not like I don't know the stuff that we talked
20:19
about with the house the Jack built, like you're not
20:21
seeing him pose people for pictures after shooting a child
20:25
in the head. Like it's just a very different thing.
20:28
Speaker 3: I think, what I don't get here that I got
20:31
or I get with house the Jack beilt, I don't
20:33
get here is like this is stylized. That's the Jack
20:36
tilt is is stylized in a way, but it's stylized
20:39
in a different way. And the violence in the House
20:42
that Jack built is very matter of fact, like there's
20:44
no style to it, Like it's being presented very straightforward,
20:48
very like this is what happens, and this is how
20:50
it happens, and purposely, yeah, like there's the intent behind it.
20:54
Like this this movie is very stylized, like it's you know,
20:57
there's there's a lot of style being put in to
21:00
the chase scenes and the action scenes, Like there's a
21:02
lot of thought and care being put into the way
21:04
those scenes are being filmed. Like, yes, this movie is disturbing,
21:07
but then you have this guy being chased through the
21:09
streets or chasing people through the streets or any number
21:13
of things, and like there's none of that in the
21:15
House to Jack build. That was a Jack built a
21:16
character study. It very quiet film in a lot of
21:19
ways comparatively to this one.
21:21
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, this one is quite loud literally and figuratively.
21:26
There's so much that's happening in every scene. Sometimes I
21:29
can understand how some people could, even especially in first watch,
21:32
maybe get confused with the narrative a little bit because
21:36
everything you know, like you mentioned, being able to pull
21:39
off so much after that original premise. It's kind of
21:43
the impressive part about this movie, and for other people,
21:45
if you're not grasping all of it, I get it.
21:49
It's just a lot. There's so much to take into
21:51
this movie, from the way that the cop sandle things,
21:53
the way that are a pimp, I guess, the guy
21:59
that's like watching these girls through this service handles himself,
22:04
the way that he cares more about these things than
22:06
the actual law enforcement. Like Korean society itself is also
22:11
like a big character in this movie. The way that
22:13
people are private, the way that people look the other way,
22:16
the way that things just happen around people and it's
22:19
not a part of their lives. Yeah, it's all a
22:22
lot that I could see somebody losing track of a bit.
22:25
Speaker 3: So we were joking before we started recording about there
22:28
being an American language remake of this film. So two
22:33
thousand and eight, this film comes out, and then within
22:36
what like a year or two I guess the year
22:38
this comes out, the remake rights were bought for the film,
22:43
and so William Monaghan, who has worked on a bunch
22:46
of stuff, I would say he's probably best known by
22:49
people my age for The Departed. He was the one
22:53
kind of tasked with doing the remake script, and originally
22:58
it was going to be him and Leonardo to Capri.
23:00
Speaker 4: Could you imagine being a director from a small country
23:05
like South Korea. You come out with your first feature
23:07
length film and the rights to remake it in the
23:10
US get bought and it's set to star Leonardo DiCaprio.
23:14
That's got to feel incredible, I ow.
23:17
Speaker 3: And what's crazy is like the premise of the movie
23:20
is very simple. Like it's a very simple premise, like
23:23
you have for most of the film, the disgraced pimp
23:27
is chasing after the serial killer. That's all it is.
23:31
But the serial killer isn't running the entire movie. Nope,
23:34
that's where the kind of novel to the movie. Yeah, yeah,
23:37
he's caught. He's in jail for part of the movie.
23:39
Like the whole contrived nature of the third act where
23:42
the serial killer and the prostitute are in the convenience
23:45
store together is because he was captured. But the only
23:48
reason that she was able to get away, that's the
23:50
only reason that he was in where he was, is
23:52
because he had gotten captured, and then the system worked
23:55
the way the system apparently works in this movie, which
23:58
is to say it doesn't work at all.
23:59
Speaker 4: Captured, released, and then followed.
24:02
Speaker 3: And so this movie also all takes place in the
24:04
span of and this is I think the thing that
24:06
I like about this movie the most is this is
24:08
like all in one night. This is like a one
24:10
night right.
24:11
Speaker 4: Kind of Well, it's it's the span of like two
24:14
days total from start to finish.
24:16
Speaker 3: Right, Well, but it's like, but no, it's like it's
24:18
it's only is it is? I thought it was only
24:19
like twenty four hours essentially.
24:21
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean it's it's a little more on the
24:23
day before, So yeah, probably somewhere between twenty four and
24:26
four eight hours.
24:27
Speaker 3: I love movies that are like this, where it's like
24:29
it's kind of not taking place like chronologically, but it's
24:32
also it's kind of taking place in real time quote unquote,
24:35
it's trying to it's it's it's putting very specific limitters
24:39
on how much of the story before and after we're seeing.
24:43
And I really like that about the movie, Like, I
24:45
like that this is kind of it further exacerbates how
24:49
fucked up the system is that this is all taking
24:51
place in one night. I think that for me is
24:53
kind of the funny, the funny, the darkly comedic aspect
24:57
of the movie.
24:58
Speaker 4: Well on that, and then also on like the state
25:01
of filmmaking in other countries, on how people demand backstories,
25:05
because with how much we find at this guy's house,
25:08
they easily could have done way more backstory on this
25:12
person to lead up to this really bad night or
25:15
really bad weekend or whatever it was, and tell way
25:19
more of the story than they need to, because in fact,
25:21
the mystery of it all makes all of it unfolding
25:24
like more terrifying, more painful, more like relatable for our
25:30
newest victim because they're his last victim essentially.
25:33
Speaker 3: Well, and that's the other thing to your point, where
25:35
it's like, we're what we're seeing here is the utter
25:40
breakdown and lack of ability of society to get their
25:45
shit together one night long enough to do anything, Like
25:49
imagine if they were having to do that for more
25:51
than one night. Oh wait, Like the societal breakdown over
25:54
one night involving this serial killer is insanity. Like the
25:59
universe that this takes place in is pretty chaotic, is
26:03
the sense that we get from the filmmaker. And again,
26:06
like that ad that adds to the kind of frenetic
26:08
nature of the movie. For me anyway, is having to
26:10
take place in one night. It's like there's like there's
26:12
no there's no foot off the gas moment in this movie.
26:15
There really isn't.
26:16
Speaker 4: I mean, there's a there's like a short breather when
26:18
they get in jail, but then it's just to watch
26:20
people like bumble over each other, which is it doesn't help.
26:23
It doesn't feel like a relief. If anything, that the
26:26
tension gets worse because you know, okay, like there's still
26:29
a second act coming of all of this. So even
26:32
if they're freed in ten minutes, which spoiler they are,
26:36
there's still like we had evidence and we're holding the
26:39
guy and we still can't fucking get this solved. So
26:42
there's about to be another chase, and I.
26:45
Speaker 3: Love so I love the initial chase in the movie
26:49
after their cars collected, and we have jong Ho chasing
26:54
after young men in the kind of the this this
26:56
kind of MoPo disparate of soul, and it's kind of
26:59
really tight alleyways and corridors, you know, exterior corridors that
27:03
they're running around in and they're kind of going up
27:05
and downstairs, and there's a little bit of verticality to
27:07
it as well. Like I again, it's you wouldn't think
27:10
a movie about two guys on foot would be this exciting,
27:14
but yet it is. And I think that so much
27:16
of it comes from again feeling inventive with what we're
27:19
doing and also accepting that, like we have to we're
27:23
not seeing the limitations of reality as a negative. We're
27:27
seeing that as a positive and something that like an
27:30
opportunity to do something different, because I haven't seen a
27:32
lot of movies that do stuff in terms of yeah,
27:34
constantly being on the move.
27:36
Speaker 4: Yeah, this this chase scene specifically that we're talking about,
27:39
it feels I don't like borderline like John Wick level
27:42
almost in how they they frame everything. And that's honestly,
27:46
we probably should mention that while discussing it is a
27:48
lot of the success of this scene specifically is the
27:52
technical prowess of the director to do this this way,
27:56
because there are a lot of choices that you could
27:57
have done very differently here, and it would felt less
28:01
hurried even though it's a chase scene, or it would
28:03
have felt more hurried, and it would have been less
28:05
realistic the way that he frames certain things where it
28:09
looks like like four times the guy that is being
28:12
chased has nowhere to go. He is about captured, and
28:16
suddenly it's like, no fuck, We're in a labyrinth of
28:18
a city and no matter what, there's always another turn,
28:21
and you keep just losing, like you're four feet away
28:25
from this guy, and suddenly he just gets out of
28:27
that crasp and it's so frustrating but so realistic in
28:31
how I could chase like this could actually go down.
28:34
Speaker 3: No. I love that chase with the cops later in
28:38
the movie where they've arrested Jung Ho and there and
28:42
there you know again, like he keeps interfering in the investigation,
28:45
he's making himself a problem and so they capture him,
28:48
but he's like running around the crime scene before they
28:51
capture him, and then he causes a car accident, then
28:54
he runs away, Like it's the amount of tricks that
28:57
this movie has up at sleeve. I think is what
28:59
I'm impressed by being There's never a moment in this
29:01
movie where I was bored. No, there's never a moment
29:03
in this movie where I was like looking at my watch, like, man,
29:06
when is this going to be over? Like this movie
29:08
kept my attention for two hours. It is a long movie.
29:13
On top of everything else, I will say, towards the
29:15
end of the movie, I was like, man, how is this?
29:18
Like how is this gonna right itself? Like because it's
29:21
got to. I like that once again, we come back
29:23
to this idea of like the one sminer Miner, the
29:27
smallest thing possible is kind of the dead giveaway. It
29:30
ends up being something that you wouldn't think is going
29:33
to be the dead giveaway. You had to have one
29:34
piece of information and another piece of information to understand
29:38
what you're missing. And I like that. You know, it's
29:41
not clear where he needs to go until the end
29:44
of the movie.
29:45
Speaker 4: Yeah, And I mean I think a lot of it
29:47
is like Koreans, they know their mysteries, they know how
29:50
to frame some of these, Like I believe didn't you
29:54
just watch Memories of Murder for the first time too
29:57
or fairly recently I did? Yeah, so I mean, that's
29:59
another and Boggje and Ho just masterfully tells that story
30:03
kind of in a similar way to this It The
30:06
Chaser and Memories of Murder are kind of up there
30:10
for me as some of the greats for this like
30:13
action crime mystery genre, although Memories of Murder is not
30:17
super heavy on the action, I guess, but it's a
30:20
they're very two sides of the same coin type of
30:23
stories that they both just do very very well.
30:25
Speaker 3: You know, if you like this movie, I would say,
30:27
go watch I Saw the Devil, but I don't. I
30:30
don't know. I don't know if I've seen both of
30:32
these movies. If I would, I feel like I would
30:34
come down like I like both of these movies. But
30:37
I feel like some people are gonna watch both and
30:38
pick because they're so similar, because they're both serial killer things,
30:42
and like again, like it's even the juxtaposition of like
30:45
it is essentially just two people most of the movie
30:47
going after one another, Like one is chasing like in
30:51
that one, it's a guy is letting someone get away
30:53
and chasing after them intentionally. This one is he's chasing
30:56
after them because he has no choice.
30:58
Speaker 4: Yeah, I Saw the Devil he's playing with the food.
31:00
Speaker 3: Yeah, the whole movie. Well, when you're James Bond, you
31:03
don't have to do what he is right right right,
31:05
when you're that masterful at what you do. That is
31:09
kind of the point. So I just I feel like
31:12
that's the one thing like I would almost like hesitate
31:15
to say, watch this and I Saw the Devil because
31:16
I feel like this movie, if you watch them back
31:19
to back, you might think one is better than the other,
31:22
just because I think one is more easily digestible than
31:24
the other, which I think I Saw the Devil is
31:26
an easy, easier to digest movie than this.
31:28
Speaker 4: One, quite straightforward, and to me, like they're similar, I
31:32
still see these as very different movies. You know, they're
31:36
both like action gore pieces. But I Saw the Devil
31:40
feels like it stops with the action. This one, the Chaser,
31:44
feels much more like horror adjacent.
31:47
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, I would actually say I Saw the Devil
31:50
feels more like a horror movie. This feels more like
31:52
an action like, right, wouldn't you? Like, I mean, this
31:54
movie's more action centric. Like the climax of this movie
31:57
is a fist fight. Yeah, it's but like that's not
32:02
a bad thing like it's let me put it this way.
32:03
I would say, I Saw the Devil is a horror thriller.
32:08
I would say this movie is a action horror action horror. Oh,
32:13
the first act and a half of this movie is
32:15
a horror movie. Y. Second act of this movie is
32:18
an action movie. Yeah, right, it it. It mixes the
32:22
two genres in a really satisfying and that is not
32:27
something that is easy to do because comedy horror films
32:31
are hard. Comedy horror is so hard that you have
32:33
to sometimes differentiate between horror comedy and comedy horror. Like
32:37
and that's the thing like with this movie, like it
32:39
is a I would say this is a I don't
32:41
know if there's a horror movie first, action movie. Second,
32:43
it almost feels like the balance is so well done
32:47
that it almost is perfectly balanced in terms of like
32:51
hitting those notes back and forth. And that's why I think,
32:54
like it's an interesting conversation to have with I Saw
32:55
the Devil because I Saw the Devil feels the same
32:57
way like I Saw the Devil feels like it hits
32:58
the horror thriller thing like perfectly. Like I don't consider
33:02
I Saw the Devil in action like I consider this
33:04
an action movie because this movie has action set pieces
33:07
in it, like like actual like momentum churning scenes that
33:13
are really like fun and kind of frenetic, and like
33:17
I consider that to be an action movie thing, and
33:20
I Saw the Devil doesn't have that so much. And
33:22
you know, like I would say, if you're if you're
33:24
looking for something that we don't really have in American cinema.
33:29
There's not an analog for this movie in American cinema.
33:31
Speaker 4: No, not really.
33:32
Speaker 3: There are analogs where I Saw the Devil.
33:34
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean I saw the Devils. I saw the
33:37
Devils mainly a revenge flick, right, Yeah, there are a
33:40
lot of those.
33:41
Speaker 3: Yeah, ultimately like it it it really is. Yeah. I
33:44
think at the end of the day, it's a horror
33:46
revenge movie. Even its probably a better way of putting it.
33:48
This movie is very much its own thing, which is
33:50
why to your point, like Leonardo DiCaprio buying the license, like, yeah,
33:56
that makes sense to like remake this movie because there
33:59
ain't really anything like this.
34:01
Speaker 4: Yeah, it would be pretty revolutionary. Now, on that note,
34:06
I certainly recommend that you go check out The Whaling
34:08
soon when you're in the mood to go for another
34:10
one that feels kind of like this but is also
34:12
supernatural in a very interesting way. Go check out The
34:16
Yellow Sea after that, and then I don't know if
34:18
you've looked into this. This blew my mind when I
34:21
first learned about it. His next movie that he's directing
34:23
is coming out in twenty twenty six, with Alicia the
34:26
Candor and Michael Fassbender as part of the cast.
34:30
Speaker 3: Is it a Korean film?
34:31
Speaker 4: It is wow? Interesting? Yes, huh, I'm so curious to see.
34:36
It's called Hope and I Yeah. It originally I think
34:39
been scheduled to come out in twenty twenty four. There's
34:41
been a couple delays, but still on track for next year.
34:44
Everything that he makes I will always watch because his
34:47
stuff has been incredible. I need to I need to
34:49
find a way to watch his shorts.
34:50
Speaker 3: Sounds interesting.
34:51
Speaker 4: Yeah, he's truly a great director. I really think you
34:55
will like The Wailing. I will say it's a little
34:58
more bleak than The Chaser. What is Chaser?
35:03
Speaker 3: Is the Chaser bleak? It's kind of hopeful by the
35:05
end of.
35:05
Speaker 4: The movie, but yeah, by the hand by the end,
35:08
I guess. But it's got like that that South Korean
35:10
bleak charm is the right.
35:12
Speaker 3: That it's bleak until it's bleak, until it's not. It's
35:15
kind of what it feels like like the I mean
35:17
the Chaser, the way the film ends with that fight
35:19
scene between the two of them, like he has to
35:21
stop himself from murdering, you know, and I saw the devil.
35:24
There's no stopping him, no, like and.
35:27
Speaker 4: If anything, he's stopping himself just so we can hurt
35:29
him more, right.
35:30
Speaker 3: And and that's this movie is inherently way more hopeful
35:33
and upbeat, I think, because I think by the end,
35:35
by the end of this movie, this movie actually I
35:36
think like has a upbeat conclusion like I you know,
35:40
like you you know, like yes, the you know ming
35:43
Gin is dead, but her daughter now has like you know,
35:46
someone who might actually like be able to protect her,
35:49
and he the Disgrace Cops seemingly gotten his ship together
35:53
by the end of the movie a little bit like
35:56
it's an hint, inherently more hopeful ending than having a
35:58
guy walking in the streets laughing when eye because he's
36:00
been broken completely like I don't know, like this this
36:05
is a little bit more of a challenging movie but
36:06
I think that if you're looking for an action movie
36:11
that actually has something interesting to say, this is not
36:13
a bad choice. And again, there ain't there ain't any
36:15
There ain't a comparative that I could even point at. So,
36:19
which is you know, kind of in a lot of ways, Ryan,
36:22
I think to bring this episode in full circle, I
36:24
would like for them to remake this movie, no, like
36:27
an American way, like an American one. Why not like
36:29
give somebody the opportunity to do something with it, Like,
36:30
don't remake it, take the concept and do something with it.
36:33
How's that?
36:34
Speaker 4: Okay?
36:34
Speaker 3: I could be doing you know what I mean, Like,
36:36
don't remake it? Per se. You think William Monahan was
36:39
gonna like, here's the thing Infernal Affairs in The Departed
36:42
two vastly different movies. Similar, yeah, but different. Like I
36:47
will give him credit that if he, if he were
36:49
the one to adapt this, I would trust him to
36:51
adapt because he seemed to have a pretty good wrangle
36:53
on adapting Asian scripts to American Asian crime. Yeah, Asian
36:59
crime scripts to a American kind of taste. So and look,
37:02
I think we both know that Leonardo DiCaprio would be
37:04
playing the serial killer role. I'm assuming, right.
37:08
Speaker 4: Maybe I'll sa I could see them making him be
37:11
the disgraced cop.
37:13
Speaker 3: I could see this grace cop being played by like
37:15
a Mark Ruffalo like DiCaprio is more physically like like,
37:19
you know, DiCaprio just wanted to play a serial That's
37:22
what this is. Just like he's been wanting to play
37:24
HH Holmes for fucking forever. Yeah, maybe that's his thing,
37:27
like Leonardo Kapp that's so, what's the one thing he
37:29
hasn't really done as an act? Even Nicholas Cage has
37:32
done it now, Like you know, even Nick Cage did
37:35
his serial killer role. Like I bet DiCaprio looked at
37:38
this and was like, this will be my serial killer role,
37:41
Like this will be my Zodiac because I mean again,
37:43
like he's the one who bought the rights. He personally
37:46
purchased the rights, so something about the film was personally
37:50
engaging for him. So I've got to assume it was
37:53
that role, So I would watch it. I don't know
37:55
how good it would be. I'd think probably at this
37:57
point the opportunity to see that movie has passed with
38:00
Leonardo DiCaprio. But yeah, man, this movie was a lot
38:03
of fun I don't think this movie is asking the
38:06
same questions as the house that Jack built. This is
38:08
just a fun move and if you need something fun
38:10
to put on for two hours, that's a little bit
38:11
on the kind of grosser gorrier side. You could do
38:14
a lot worse than The Chaser, but I'm not sure
38:16
you could do a lot better.
38:17
Speaker 4: I would agree. I'm so glad you liked this. I did.
38:19
Speaker 3: I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it immensely, and it allowed
38:21
me to watch some more Korean films that I hadn't
38:24
gotten a chance to see. So there's also there's also that,
38:26
which is also.
38:27
Speaker 4: A huge It's a big win.
38:28
Speaker 3: Yeah. So on that note, we'll take a little break
38:34
and play a preview for the final Culture cast of September.
38:39
It's right on the final Culture Cast of September, we're
38:41
gonna be talking about robin Hood, King of Thieves. See
38:43
I said it right this time, robin Hood King of Thieves.
38:47
Speaker 4: It's robin Hood, Prince of Thief.
38:49
Speaker 3: Oh I have it wrong on the calendar. Then that's why.
38:53
Now whatever, you know what I'm talking about, because I've
38:55
already fucking told you how I feel about it before
38:57
I even watch it, and then I'll probably watch and
38:59
be like, oh, this is such a good movie. No,
39:01
I'll probably watch it and say Alan Rickman's great, So
39:03
it is so good. I see, Yeah, that's all I've heard.
39:06
So we'll finish the month with Robinhood, Prince of Robinhood,
39:11
King of King until then, Ryan, where can people find
39:14
you and the things that you.
39:14
Speaker 4: Were everywhere under the Disconnected or at someone's favorite productions
39:18
dot com?
39:19
Speaker 1: Please?
39:19
Speaker 3: As for me, Weirdingwaymedia dot com is where you can
39:22
find me and all the things that I work on.
39:23
So yeah, go there. Like rate and review the show
39:26
on iTunes. Please head on over to Patreon and kick
39:29
a couple of dollars my way. If you're interested, get
39:32
access to rankin on Bond where Richard HadAM of Richard
39:35
Adams Paranormal Bookshelf and Mike White of The Projection Booth
39:38
and I sit and talk about James Bond once a
39:40
month together and it's a lot of fun. So if
39:42
that's something you're into, go on over and check that out.
39:44
If not, like, rate and review the show on iTunes,
39:47
that's it so or Spotify. I guess you can rate
39:49
it there too, Ryan, Thank you so much for joining
39:52
me in for programming a month. It's spending good movies
39:54
so far, not a dud yet.
39:56
Speaker 4: Thank you. I'm so glad that you're gonna love Robinhood as.
39:58
Speaker 3: Well as always. Well, we'll catch you on the next episode.