Deo pa-i-beu (2013) Reviews

• The Five

  Shadowplayed2015-01-19

  Eun-A has a loving family, she's creative and happy go lucky. Unfortunately, she and her daughter cross path with serial killer who tracks them down and kills her husband and daughter. Severely beaten and left for dead Eun-A miraculously survives this savage attack, and now the only thing that keeps her going - mentally and physically damaged - is a dream of revenge. But, handicapped and weak she can't pull this off by herself, so she decides to gather a group of outcasts, each one with a specific skill to find the killer, each of them having one thing in common: members of their family (daughter, mother, wife) are on organ transplant waiting list. She gives them the proposal they can't pass on. At first none of those people trust one another, but having heard Eun- A's story they finally break, and agree to help her. And so, five ordinary people, heavily burdened by their personal problems and tragedies team up to catch sleazy, skillful and psychopathic murderer. In the edge-of-the seat cat and mouse game which will keep you emotionally engaged while rooting for this bunch. Hard to believe this is Jung Yeon-Sik's first feature, it's directed with skill and confidence, production is top, as expected for revenge thriller, genre that surpasses other Korean cinema output in production values and popularity overseas. As per usual, we have the full package here, film contains action, comedy (provided once again by lazy and incompetent law enforcement officers), lots of violence, drama, mystery. Lovely Kim Sun-A (Eun-A) is the star of this film as tragic heroine but the whole cast did a convincing job, especially robust and likable Ma Dong-Seok (Azooma, The Flu). I have to give props to our antagonist, chilling, cold, demented, teen idol type, On Joo-Wan as Jae-Wook, pretty boy killer, a rising star artist. With a dark secret and specific "artistic" vision that cost people their lives. And Park Hyo-Joo (Hye-Jin) good Samaritan, Eun-A's tragic friend and sidekick, comedic relief with small, but touching role. Excellent, engaging film, real emotional roller coaster, highly recommended.

• Suspenseful, gripping, emotional. Spoilers! Read after watching!

  growns_up2018-09-16

  I don't understand the low review...I thought this was an excellent movie. Some clever plot twists as is the usual with a lot of Korean films in this genre. I was expecting another twist at the end which didn't happen but would have been interesting. (It would have been interesting if they decided to use the killer's organs instead...but I guess that's me overthinking things!) I also wanted to see what happened to 'glass eyes' organ transplant recipient... Plus...a more drawn out punishment for the killer would have been more satisfying!

• Solid Thriller

  foutainoflife2018-09-28

  Woman loses her daughter and husband to a serial killer. She teams up with an unlikely group in an attempt to exact her revenge and in return offer them each something they can not find without her. This was a solid thriller. It had a lot of emotion tied into it and while some of it was rather unlikely, it was nonetheless a good story. I am someone who happens to think that Dong-seok Ma is an excellent actor. He was also in Train to Busan and I've seen it written that he is the South Korean version of Dwanye "The Rock" Johnson. I look forward to seeing him in more of the South Korean movies I plan to watch. Check this out.