Well I decided to watch this movie after seeing the excellent reviews at the site...however I was seriously disappointed...The movie is too violent and gory to watch and if you have kids around avoid watching the movie. If inspired from a true event then its fine...if not then a lot could have been done to improve the story. Also there are too many loop holes in the script like the sloppy police investigation of the murders. Also there doesn't seem to be any real motives behind the murders..making the script fall flat at times.Certainly its no match to other masterpieces like 'Mother' or 'Memories of Murder'. ..Thriller..yes...but not to my taste...

The Chaser is yet another example of the excellence of South Korean cinema. Since the millennium there have been several absolute standout movies from this country. Often what makes them so good is that they have materialised from a culture hitherto sparsely represented in the movies, meaning that we in the west often find their films less predictable than we are normally used to. The Chaser is quite a good example of this because what we have is a staple of the thriller genre – the serial killer film – presented in ways that go against expectations. Structurally, it's unusual in that not only is the killer's identity revealed very early on but he is also caught near the start. This means that the focus then switches to the police bureaucracy that hinders everything bar the maniac himself. But even with this switch of direction, the plot-line still retains a high suspense narrative whereby an abducted girl remains in the killer's lair, a place totally unknown the police.The story-line itself has an ex-policemen turned pimp apprehend a man whom he believes has kidnapped one of his girls. This man then confesses to police that has murdered this girl but without any direct proof he is set to be released in 12 hours by the powerless authorities, leading to frantic detective work. This story results in a cat and mouse standoff. But with a hero who is hardly whiter than white – he is after all a pimp who is distrusted by his former police colleagues; who themselves are shown to be fairly incompetent. So the dynamic between the characters is fairly complex and leads to some unpredictable results. The two main characters are especially good here and very well played by the actors. There is great use of the back streets of Seoul too. Especially in the case of some high octane foot chases which unusually show the sheer exhaustion of such an endeavour, equally the several frantic and messy fights have a similar realism. This approach is distinctive and adds a lot. The violence is often so realistic it offers little distance to the audience, particularly horrible is the hammer and chisel sequence which made for extremely grim viewing. This grit and grime adds a further dimension to a film which has already taken a genre film to unpredictable places. It ends in a way that is neither happily wrapped up not one dimensionally nihilistic, it's something in between. In a film of many contrasts and surprises, it feels right that it does so.

It's not a joke, I did just open an IMDb account to warm other people that this is worse than a waste of time. This movie did get a strong emotional reaction from me, but it wasn't suspense. It was anger at how stupid all of the characters are, from start to finish. The script is terrible, relying on ridiculous coincidences to move the plot along. If this is supposed to be a critique of police corruption and incompetence, it is a critique written by a complete outsider, an outsider to common sense, someone who lacks basic understanding of how police might think and work. Nothing that happens is plausible. All of the main characters should have dropped dead of stupidity. And it is very predictable. Venting my anger is the best part of this movie. This is Mystery Science Theater 3000 material.

This is a thriller movie (inspired from true story) with a new level of unpredictability in number of scenes. Firstly, the rapidness of the screenplay pace. At 30 minutes itself, the killer is found by the protagonist which is quite new and there is no flashbacks from then on, yet the movie goes on. The movie is filled with violent/gory scenes and I certainly enjoyed the bgm during chase.I've felt was the humor at certain seemed to me inappropriate to the theme (may be I don't speak Korean so good) and the situations and the investigations were far too unbelievable,IMO.To me, I couldn't chase it (appreciate the beauty of screenplay - if any), but you still may.So go ahead and watch it.