Addicted

Brothers Dae-jin (Byung-hun Lee) and Ho-jin (Eol Lee) are both involved in car accidents that leave them in a coma. When Dae-jin regains consciousness he begins to exhibit mannerisms that suggest that he is possessed by his brother's spirit, which leaves Ho-jin's wife Eun-su (Mi-yeon Lee) uncertain how to react.

I watched the dreadfully dull Sarah Michelle Gellar movie Possession not so long ago, unaware that it was a remake of Korean drama Addicted, a film that has sat gathering dust in my box of unseen DVDs for quite some time now. On seeing that the original had a pretty decent rating here on IMDb, I decided to dig it out and thankfully found it to be the superior film, a classy affair that, unlike the remake, deals with its subject matter in a subtle and intelligent manner.

Like Possession, Addicted is a real slow-burn of a film, the narrative unfolding in a considered manner that I suspect will be way too leisurely for many viewers, but with the Korean film successfully avoiding the dumb plot holes and ridiculous characterisations that made its US counterpart difficult to endure, it proves to be a thoroughly engaging bittersweet romance, twisted and yet touching at the same time.