So I was out one day at my local video store and I rented 10 Asian films as I'm quite a fan of Asian cinema. I got round to watching this and have to say I had quite a good time with this and was quite impressed.
The film does sort of play along with you and doesn't have any answers for the first hour or so. All you pretty much know is that you have your leading heroine (or anti heroine to some) Jung Sun (Jeong-hwa Eom) who looks perfectly innocent and cute, works as a car salesperson and starts going on a killing spree for reasons ambiguous to the audience to begin with. And she keeps playing a cassete tape that has a kid singing a song.
Obviously people kill for a reason - whether they have a tormented psychological issue, or are just plain psycho or may be killing thinking they are doing society good by killing people deemed a nuisance or unnecessary to live (think Taxi Driver style). So I knew there was something more to this character, and luckily the film delivers on that aspect and the reasons for each murder she does is explained at the end as you have no idea why she has targeted some of her victims.
Towards the end, it does sort of get a bit over the top but I didn't mind it and made me sympathise a lot more with the character. The policemen working on capturing her are stupid only because of the fact that the main cop also has a role to play in all that is happening.
I won't say what her motivations are for killing her victims - it makes it more surprising and involving when you find out for yourself. Perhaps you could say the end is slightly cliché but I think it was well deserved in terms of its outcome.
The performances are pretty good, especially from Jeong-hwa Eom who is able to pull the film on her shoulders and combines beauty with deadly vengeance all in one while also displaying human emotions in terms of her past. While the killings can get repetitive as you still don't really know where some of it is going, it pays off at the end, though some things were a bit hazy in terms of how she just happened to have luck in finding some of her victims after everything that happened.
What the film also sends in terms of its message is how we can sometimes overlook simple acts of kindness which can actually prevent major problems or accidents from happening. Our own selfish desires or self interest often results in harm to others which is apparent in any society whether it be Korean or in any other part of the world.
So yeah, I would recommend this film as it was pretty solid and I found myself enjoying it while also packing an emotional depth in its form.
