Over My Dead Body (2012)
"Si-che-ga Dol-a-wass-da" (original title)

Science researcher Hyeon-cheol demonstrates with co-workers against the company president, who stole an important semiconductor chip and is attempting to flee to the United States. ... See full summary »

Director:

Seon-ho Wu

Writer:

Seon-ho Wu

Stars:

Beom-su Lee, Seung-beom Ryu, Ok-bin Kim

Cast

Credited cast:
Beom-su Lee	...	Baek Hyeon-cheol
Seung-beom Ryu	...	Ahn Jin-oh
Ok-bin Kim	...	Han Dong-hwa
Chang-Seok Ko	...	Seong-goo
Da-in Yoo	...	Jang Ha-yeon
Jeong-se Oh	...	Wise governor
Man-shik Jeong	...	Steve Jeong
Jeong-geun Sin	...	Team leader Jo
In-gi Jeong	...	Han Jin-soo
Bae Jeong-nam	...	Jong-moo
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Frank M. Ahearn	...	Detective Larry David

Storyline

Science researcher Hyeon-cheol demonstrates with co-workers against the company president, who stole an important semiconductor chip and is attempting to flee to the United States. Meanwhile, the company president makes his escape from the protesters in an ambulance. During his escape, the executive cuts a wound in his arm and implants the chip there. While, Hyeon-cheol and co-worker Han Jin-soo head for home, Han Jin-Soo is hit by a speeding car. Hyeon-cheol thinks it isn't an accident. He contacts Han Jin-Soo's daughter Dong-Hwa and they meet at the police station. After visiting her father at the hospital, Dong-Hwa becomes worried about how to pay for her father's hospital bills. On a TV at the hospital, they learn that the company president died from a heart attack. Hyeon-cheol and Dong-Hwa then come up with the idea to steal the body of the company president for ransom. Their plan goes somewhat according to plan, but Hyeon-cheol and Dong-Hwa soon realize that they didn't steal a ...

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Genres:

Crime | Drama

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Details

Country:

South Korea

Language:

Korean

Release Date:

29 March 2012 (South Korea)

Also Known As:

Return of the Corpse

Box Office

Budget:

$2,600,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Cine2000

Technical Specs

Runtime:

110 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

User Reviews

Not terrible, but a missed opportunity for something better!

SPOILERS…

I really wanted to like this movie, and, there was a good deal to like about it on an individual basis. As a whole though, it's a bit of a mess.

Here's your story: Tech company president tries to steal top secret microchip to sell oversees, but dies before he can do so. An engineer working for the tech company gets in a car accident, and his daughter and the accident victim's young co-worker need to find a way to make some money, so they decide to kidnap the company president's corpse and hold it for ransom. Unbeknownst to them however, the top secret microchip is embedded in the dead president's body. At the same time, a petty con man hatches a plan with morgue worker to steal the microchip by switching bodies at the morgue, so they can sell the chip themselves. The daughter and co-worker end up stealing the wrong "switched" body (who is actually the living petty con man). Eventually, the aforementioned trio end up working together to come up with one new scheme after another in order to 'get paid'. Meanwhile, the morgue worker has his own plans, there's some loan sharks chasing after the petty con man, the president's family is using their resources to recover the dead body, an international group of investors/crooks hire some "spies" to find the microchip at any cost, and the NIS (Korean CIA/NSA) is after everybody….WHEW!!!!

As complicated as the story summary above may seem, this movie is actually quite easy to follow and isn't really confusing at all. The problem lies with the fact that there are just way too many story lines going on to make this film work in a coherent and effective manner…as a result; this movie is constantly reduced to bouncing back and forth between one story line to the next, and merges plots and characters arcs together seemingly at will.

To me, this movie seems to want to present itself as some type of comedic mad dash caper/grab the cash story in the mold of something similar to "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World". At the same time, this film also wants to try to tell some coherent semi-dramatic story along the way…unfortunately, I don't think you can have it both ways, and I think this film shows why that is the case.

There are quite a few good aspects in regards to this film though: overall production is very solid, acting by the entire cast is strong throughout, and several stand alone acts are effective and done quite well. It does have its warts though, particularly so as it draws to a close.

Bottom Line: This film has some good individual performances and scenes throughout, but I think the end sum is clearly less than its parts…Overall; it was ultimately perhaps a bit too much of an ambitious project to successfully pull off. If the story & plot were streamlined a bit, and the talented cast was given a bit more reign & freedom, it could have been much better. But, it is what it is!

I'm giving it 6 out of 10 stars!