Blood 13

I have a really strong interest in Asian Cinema, so I'm already in this film's corner from the start. However, it really did take me awhile to get into the film and the plot.

Essentially, women are found dead in a red dress with all of their blood drained in different locations throughout the city. So, yeah, there is a serial killer on the loose. Perfectly reasonable plot for any crime/thriller movie. So, it's a worthwhile start.

The problem is for the first third of the movie, there is a lot of characters yelling at each other without any real character development and a fair amount of false starts on suspects that seem to confuse the plot more then advance it. I don't want to go into too much detail as this might ruin some potential surprises, but, needless to say it all just slows the film down.

Eventually, it is revealed who the killer is and we get to see him out and about as the police try and track him down. This is about the point the film shifts focus on a detective who failed to catch the killer years earlier. He is a likable character and the film starts to pick up steam. Everything becomes a lot more suspenseful and interesting and there is a much more classic and compelling matching of wits between the killer and cop. Problem is, more then half the film has already elapsed.

There is also a female detective who, initially, seemed to have been the lead character, until the movie shifted the focus to the older, haunted detective. She seems more to be a plot device to increase tension towards the end of the film and less a real character. She spends a lot of the movie being angry and yelling that they have to catch the killer.

Not exactly selling anyone on seeing this, I realize, but when, about halfway through, the killer is revealed and the focus is on the older detective catching him, things really pick up. This is the part worth waiting for and the part of Blood 13 I liked.

Not the best Asian crime thriller by any means, but has it's moments and might be worth a look. In the end, I enjoyed it.