Baksu-chiltae deonara (2005)

Director:

Jin Jang

Writer:

Jin Jang (writer)

Release Date:

11 August 2005 (South Korea)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Mystery

Plot:

A woman is killed in a hotel room. The ensuing police investigation is conducted in front of TV cameras for the entire country to watch as it unfolds. |

Plot Keywords:

Murder | Based On Play

Cast

Seung-won Cha	...	Choi Yeon-gi
Yeong-Nam Jang
Dong-hwan Jeong
Gyu-su Jeong
Jae-yeong Jeong	...	Bully
Ji-su Kim	...	Jung Yun-jung
Hyeong-gwon Lee
Jung-ah Park	...	Han Mu-suk
Goo Shin
Ha-kyun Shin	...	Kim Young-hun

Also Known As:

Murder, Take One (International: English title)
The Big Scene (International: English title) (informal title)

Runtime:

115 min

Country:

South Korea

Language:

Korean

Color:

Color

Certification:

South Korea:15 | Singapore:NC-16

Filming Locations:

South Korea

A Nutshell Review: (DVD) Murder Take One (2005)

The movie opens with a very stunning tracking shot with a view of a motionless woman's body, from the feet, before slowly revealing that she's lying in a pool of blood, juxtaposed with the linear motion of time where investigators flood the crime scene in her hotel room, before pulling further backwards to become the eye in the sky, where you can see the neighbours of her room (some bickering, some having sex) truly oblivious with what's going on a few doors down, and panning outwards to the facade of the hotel, then descending rapidly to the porch area where more cops congregate, and it's revealed that a prime suspect has been arrested.

Unveiling in 48 hours, we follow the investigators, led by prosecutor Yeon-ki (Cha Seung- won) as they try to break down Kim Young-hoon (Shin Ha-gyoun), in what I thought was an extended interrogation system which somehow tested your patience with the cat-and-mouse styled challenges each side throw to the other in a series of dares and defiances. Thankfully, the plot does move on to other more conventional aspects of investigations, as always, everything is more than meets the eye, and no stone should be left unturned.

What's also peculiar in the movie is the combination of a current affairs television show which interferes in the investigations, and audaciously tries to swing its outcome via its own panel of experts, piecing together of clues, and having an audience participation, which of course is used to boost ratings, but to the irk of Yeon-ki. There are plenty of stuff which unfortunately becomes loss in translation, and most of them are the comedic aspects from the dialogue. What was supposed to be some comedy mixed in, becomes a fairly serious investigative mystery movie when you're reliant on the subtitles.

As with the standard investigative drama fare, there are moments which shine as the investigators manage to shed new light and clues, though it somehow went downhill with the introduction of some mediums - don't laugh though, because I do think there's a certain amount of mysticism at times when the authorities get flabbergasted - some help from the other side won't hurt at all right? Especially so when you call on the right person to reappear.

In any case, there are enough twists and turns, and at one point my hair did stand on its end in a chilling scene, but ultimately, what was supposed to be a stunner of a revelation, turned out to be quite anti-climatic. There are some nice observations made about investigations though, pertaining to CCTVs, so if you're interested, you can probably watch this to find out what those challenges are.