Sea Fog

I started watching it and thought it's all about an ordinary illegal immigration but guess what I was wrong and I just realized this in half way. Highly tensed, it kept me thinking what's gonna happend next!!

Are all the crew members gonna survive?

Are they gonna caught?

Is Dong sik gonna able to start a new life with that girl?

I would please to rate this 8/10 but I really dont like it's ending :)

This film BLEW all my expectations out of the water , I knew nothing about it going in and enjoyed every single second of this incredible piece of Korean Cinema.

The intensity and tone of the film is one of the best things I can say about it , you could cut the tension with a knife and my hands were sweating the whole time ! The score and editing was impeccable , particularly the score being reminiscent of huge blockbusters (all though this is a lot more adult and brutal than an American blockbuster as usual with Korean Cinema). The cinematography was absolutely incredible , considering this took place on a boat , there was practically no shaky cam throughout the entire thing and instead the viewers are treated to some gorgeous visuals and beautiful smooth and steady shots. Only negative thing I have to say about Haemoo is the fact that a few times , it felt a little bit cliché with its character moments and plot decisions (very rarely) .

I could not believe my eyes when I saw the ratings online , they deserve to be much , MUCH higher.

The captain of a South Korean fishing trawler is offered his biggest payday yet. All he has to do is pick up a bunch of Chinese refugees off the mainland of China and bring them to South Korea. He takes the job and initially everything goes well. However, the plans are thrown into disarray when tragedy strikes...

Interesting drama. Plot starts and develops well. The event that changes the course of the plot is shown in a semi-sympathetic light towards the crew and captain and you get the feeling it is going to be story about how the crew manage to evade the authorities, and smooth things over with their paymasters.

However, from a point the movie takes a romantic turn, and an idealistic turn, and this reduces it from a crew vs the authorities movies to a much more conventional good guys vs bad guys film. The multi-layered shades of gray is replaced a one-dimensional black- and-white. This takes the lustre off the movie to an extent.

Is still reasonably entertaining in the end, but had the potential to be something great.

Haemoo is one of those few films, where to reveal too much while discussing it, would completely ruin the intensity of the story. If you're anything like me, you'll go into the film assuming it will be similar to 'A Perfect Storm', and you will instead find yourself in the middle of something else entirely. Kang (Kim Yun-Seok) is not only a man at the end of his tether, but the captain of fishing vessel Jeonjiho, a bucket of bolts and disrepair, in need of immediate overhaul. The owner, who he reports to, wishes to sell the vessel, though Kang's bond with his ship, which is stronger than any he has with the people in his life, leaves him desperately trying to keep that which has been in his family for generations. Unable to afford the hefty price of buying the vessel, he agrees to illegally transport Chinese-Korean stowaways, from a prearranged location at sea, to the mainland.

Dong-Sik (Park Yoo-Chun), the youngest and newest member of the Jeonjiho, is one of only a couple crew members who initially expresses issue with this plan, though the lacking quantity of fish, and the need for money, causes everyone to unanimously agree. When moving the illegal immigrants onto the vessel, the beautiful Hong-Mae (Han Ye-Ri), falls into the ocean, Dong-Sik jumping in to save her, thus beginning a strong bond that ties them together.

The inexperience the Jeonjiho crew have in transporting stowaways, alongside the lustful attraction several of the men have towards a number of the women, results in the build up of tension, as several crew members try to take advantage of the situation. Despite the dangerous conditions, and the threat of being boarded by security, Haemoo explores how sometimes, the greatest threat when you're out at sea, are the people around you.

Themes concerning love, friendship, trust, greed and fear are interwoven into the plot, the tension slowly escalating with such precise execution, that viewers will literally find themselves inches from the screen, hanging onto every action. Though there are occasional sex scenes, and moments of violence, the film is neither bloodthirsty, nor extreme in their depiction, these instead being used to heighten the story-line.

The acting is especially convincing, and it is the talents of the crew that especially increases the level of panic, fear and dread that grips the film. Despite characterization being only in short supply, the emotional depth and poignancy surrounding the leads engages us, especially as the film begins to traverse into darker territory.

A very dark, sophisticated and powerful dramatic thriller, Haemoo shows humanity at its best and worst, and though the theme of hope is continually in a state of flux, I certainly hope you watch this film; if not for any other reason, then for the wide variety of emotions Haemoo is guaranteed to offer.

(TIFF'14 Intro) Director Sung Bo Shim introduced the movie's afternoon screening and stuck around for Q&A session afterwards.

(Review) I consider Snowpiercer to be one of the best films to come out of 2013, and Joon-ho Bong's co-scripting duties on Haemoo was what attracted me to Haemoo. While first time director, and co-script(er) Sung Bo Shim took over directorial duties for Haemoo, it is with Snowpiercer that the film will most draw comparisons. Although they couldn't be more different in terms of scripting, plot, or even the message they aim to get across, they are both a gritty, bleak look at humanity's darker side, and in both cases, play their conflicts out in locations that mirror the messages the films are trying to get across. As Snowpiercer traces a revolution that begins in the bleak lower classes back carriages of the last remaining train on Earth, moves through the empowered, and autonomous middle class cars and ends at the apathetic, electronically numb upper classes carriages, the audience are treated to a class warfare fueled journey through the entirely of our world.

Bo Shim, here, plays his tale out on a small fishing vessel, and a desperate captain, who decides to transport human cargo when business runs slow. As in Snowpiercer, the fishing vessel, and the ocean it travels on, reflect the mental state of the crew. Clear waters and sunny oceans start their journey, dark stormy waters mark their arrival to pick up the new cargo and as the crew start breaking and coming to terms with what they've been forced to do, the Haemoo (sea fog) sets in, blinding our screens, and trapping the vessel in ethereal limbo. Bo Shim takes visual clues from Joon-ho Bong and dresses up the three areas of the ship according to their roles: the uppers decks are gray and steely, the fish hold (a very bad place) is dark and bleak, and the engine room, the only 'sanctuary' for a large part of the film, is decked in shades warm yellow and brown. The film looks stark and visceral, and everything, from the script to the acting, helps get that across.

All the sights and sounds would be a waste without a solid script to back it up, and the movie does not disappoint. Haemoo throws average, ordinary, salt of the earth people into desperate situations that shatter, twist and test them. The movie's first act traces the lives of these fishermen, on and off land, and shows them going about their lives. The writing in these parts is so authentic that it's hard not to view them as real people, with real, crappy jobs by the time they head back off to sea. It is through these unremarkable and slow sequences (a charming little love story on the boat takes the better part of the first hour) that the script manages to put us at ease and catch us off guard when the s**t hits the fan. And it does hit the fan. I won't spoil anything for you, and while there's hardly any on screen violence, Haemoo was more effective as a horror movie than last night's screening of Rec 4. The final act culminates in one of the most haunting sequences you will see this year on the big screen, and ends with a perfect ending: unapologetic, chaotic, confusing, without closure. Real.

Before the film began, one of the film's protagonists (also in attendance) said she hoped that the movie will stay with the audience long after it's over. I find it hard to imagine anyone walking away from this film unscathed. How could ordinary people do these acts? Was there something dark inside them all along? Perhaps the things they were forced to do shattered their minds? Perhaps there something dark and twisted in everyone? These are questions I should stop asking myself, but I can't. Haemoo is a masterpiece, and excels in getting under your skin and affecting you on a very primal level. This is a movie you need to watch, and with an excellent score to boot, one you should want to.