YONHAP NEWS

(Movie Review) Duller than reality, 'Missing' fails to hit bull's eye

By Shin Hae-in
SEOUL, March 13 (Yonhap) -- Whether intended or not, the main character in the movie "Missing (Siljong)" resembles Korea's brutal serial killer Kang Ho-sun to a considerable extent.

With the memory of Kang, who admitted to killing seven women for "mere amusement" last month, still fresh in people's minds, the similarity could have been a tool of superb commercial effect -- if only the movie were half as intriguing as the real-life story.

After several sleepless nights waiting for her missing sister to turn up, Hyeong-jeong (Choo Ja-hyeon) drives to a secluded provincial village where her little sister supposedly last used her mobile phone.

   Told by some indifferent villagers that they may have seen her sister near the house of chicken farmer Pan-gon (Moon Sung-keun), Hyeong-jeong requests police to investigate, only to be rejected and insulted by them.

   Desperate to find her sister -- her only remaining family member after the death of her parents -- Hyeong-jeong is left by herself to search the shabby residence of Pan-gon, a psychopath who has raped and murdered three women, and feeds the ground-up parts of their bodies to his chickens.

   Just like the actual serial killer Kang, Pan-gon is a two-faced character whom comes off as a timid, lonesome widower and a faithful son to his sickly mother. To fulfill his distorted sexual desires, Pan-gon lures young women to his house and barbarously tortures them to death, while villagers and policemen are fooled by his cowardly attitude.

   "I hope you didn't come here for fun. This is going to be an uncomfortable movie to watch," director Kim Seong-hong told the audience at the film's preview Thursday. "It is an honest movie showing what can happen when society remains indifferent about finding missing people."

   The first part of the director's comment may be correct -- the movie is highly discomforting to watch and far from entertaining -- but the latter remains a question.

While the film does show indolent authorities and apathetic neighbors, it fails to convince the audience that they are partially responsible for the deaths of the missing victims.

   Although the movie presents many brutal scenes convincing enough to make viewers turn their heads and grip armrests, the overall plot has too many holes to keep them focused through the ending credit.

   The movie also fails to offer a convincing explanation about the sudden personality change of the poker-faced psychopath, who suddenly becomes clumsy and reveals his emotions to the heroine.

   Even seasoned acting by veteran actor Moon, who plays the psychopath Pan-gon, falls short of livening up the movie, which becomes even more boring and obvious toward the latter half.

   What is surprising is that director Kim is an acclaimed playwright who gained many fans after writing the scenario of the local blockbuster series "Two Cops" in the 1990s.

   One side note -- after watching the human-eating chickens in this movie, you may think twice about eating eggs in the future.

   The movie, with a running time of 98 minutes, will hit local theaters March 19.

   hayney@yna.co.kr
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