H (2002)

On the whole, I enjoyed this film. It starts out with a series of nice, gruesome post-mortem and death scenes, and carries the creepy ambiance most of the way through. Unfortunately, as the twists begin to unravel, so does the quality of the film.For the sake of those who haven't seen the film, I won't spoil any of the myriad twists, but I will say that you better pay very close attention to this film or you'll miss some illuminating plot points, as I did.Unfortunately, this has to do with the number of suspects/characters in the film, and the difficulty an American viewer will have keeping all the names separate. Characters are often referred to by name without being on screen (as is the nature of a police thriller), and I found myself, more often than not, seeing said names and thinking, "wait, which one is he?" Still, I doubt I'd have had the problem if the characters in question were more than just your standard serial murder movie cutouts. I watch a lot of Korean cinema, and this is the first time I've ever had this problem.This speaks to the general quality of the film which, while engaging, is certainly not going to stun most viewers with its artistry. The acting is passable (at best), the writing is sparse and convoluted (though not devoid of entertainment value, to be sure), and the editing is flat-out terrible. That's not something that usually stands out for me in a film, but in this case it was a flagrant issue with the film. You'll find yourselves following the characters to a raid on a suspect's house only to forget why this guy was a suspect in the first place, and random cuts to side characters doing sweet F.A. don't do much to ease the difficulty of following the bouncing (murder)ball.There are two kinds of "end of the movie twists" out there. There's the "Oh my god, I didn't see that coming, but I should've" twists, and then there are the "uh...what?" twists. Sadly, the final revelation of this film is one of the latter. I've seen debate on the message boards regarding the supposed "final, final twist," but I have to say that it's a pretty loose interpretation to call the final moments of the film yet another twist. It's more of a "book-end," and effective as such.Where this film fails most is in the expectations it builds. It's an excellent concept for a serial murderer flick, and they spend a lot of time building an interesting emotional landscape that's inevitably forsaken for gimmicky plot devices that, while not wholly unbelievable (though highly improbable), are pretty much just plain silly. Had they stuck with the emotional and psychological themes and forsaken the twists, this would be an excellent film.As it stands, it is not excellent, but it's certainly not terrible. If you're a fan of Asian thrillers, you could do worse than this one.-J

I bought this film expecting an Asian rip off of Se7en, but was confronted with something better- a disturbing film with a gruesome plot. Someone is killing single mothers- pre birth.In the opening scene of the movie you've got a dead woman found in a trash heap with her baby literally torn out of her. If that's not gruesome enough, I don't know what is.The film has one of the best twists in a long time, and totally puts a spin on the serial killer genre of films.The most disturbing scene would have to be the scene on the bus. I won't go into detail, you'll have to watch it for yourself.Overall I give the film 10/10. Great story, brilliant twist, very disturbing.

I could go on about the slow pace, bad acting, moodiness, implausibility, contrived and generally ridiculous plot line but suffice to say that I wish it was me getting a bullet in my head at the end of the movie.The movie was dreadful. I'd recommend almost any other Korean movie over this. The sheer number of times I found myself scoffing at the actions of the characters, the plot "twists" or the character "dialogue" were too numerous to count.Any deeper reading about the supposed message of the movie only serves to obscure the fact that this was one horrible flick.The only positive comment I can make (as someone on the message boards noted) was some of the very interesting artwork; I quite liked it.

H by Jong-hyuk Lee is an amazing thriller with a plot twist at the end that will make you cringe. The film is definitely riffing off the American psychological cop drama, namely Seven and the Silence of the Lambs. That's what makes this film great. It takes those films, and takes it a step further. First, the film is shot beautifully. Second, the story follows three detectives who are tracking the crimes of a murderer who kills pregnant women and slashes their stomachs. Some of the murder scenes are totally gory. The three detectives are rather atypical personalities but it works well for the story….The woman is short haired and is quiet, calm, and always smoking cigarettes. She's tough like Clarice Starling in Silence of the Lambs. She is the one who counters the main character who is more like Brad Pitt in Seven. He's the fast talking guy, he's often late to the crime scenes because he's just not on top of things. And the third guy is the fat klutz who always trips over things and he's the comic relief.As the film progresses, we discover that the murders of the pregnant women are done in the exact same way as murders done years ago by a murderer who was put in jail by these same detectives six months ago. The fast talking cop becomes the Clarice Starling as he goes to interview this Hannibal Lechter type character. Through these interviews, he tries to track down the new killer who is copying the murderer's past deeds.Ultimately the twist ending is really intense, and you probably wont guess what it is….it's a lot cooler than putting the cop's wife's head in a box like in Seven. This movie is really creepy and the performances are great. It's definitely worth watching.