Manhole (2014)

Powerful

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

This is in no way up there with films like I Saw The Devil or The Chaser but it had a few moments of suspense. My problem was never really understanding why the killer was doing what he was. It showed a sweet connection between sisters and a father who tried, against all odds, to get to his daughter. I didn't understand the young boy either. This isn't gonna be at the top of the list when it comes to great movies but it wasn't an awful ride. I did want to see it all the way through to the end and although there is room left for a lot of speculation, I'm ok with that. Not the best but I've seen much worse.

The story of a madman who abducts women and taking them to his underground lair via manholes. This was really creepy at times, with some nice effects. The film had the potential to be just as disturbing as 'I saw the Devil' or 'The Chaser', but I didn't find the antagonist all that convincing and found he wasn't given enough to do. In fact, he even seemed passive at times when I expected him not to. There's also too many instances where victims hesitated for no reason while having an opportunity to kill or outwit their assailant. In general this was a very good film, but believe it could have been greatly improved with stronger acting and faster pacing, and without the police being such idiots.

Korean thrillers are known for their diversity and for their quality. Most of them that is. In this case, this is more like a standard exercise (no pun intended). Still better than the worst we've seen from the West. We know most of the time, where this is going (no pun intended), still it is dragging the viewer down by surprise at points (again sorry for the pun), which is a nice change of pace.It has its moments and I reckon you can argue about the ending (or rather the last frame so to speak), but like it or not: it does its job. The tension is there and the story does evolve the right way. There's also weird characters and strong characters at the same time. It still doesn't completely connect, which make it a bit of a distant experience ... but I've seen worse

South Korean cinema is famous for its thriller. Just say "Memories of Murder", "I Saw The Devil", "The Chaser" etc. and I'm sure every cinephile in the world would know about this. Its their favorite genre actually, you can see that a lot of this type of movie produced every year in South Korea and its whether a hit or miss. Manhole, got a great premise about a serial killer who have traumatic experience from his childhood and happen to live in the stinky manhole and will randomly kill as many people as he like. This man looks like he got a superpower because he can vanish and appear everywhere without a sound.There is some victim who try to save herself but always fail because he is so fast and great in his field of work. Then here he come the Korean cinema most favorite character, the dumb policemen who always lazy,clumsy,ignorant and always make the usual mistake that make all victim in every South Korean thriller movie get killed. What I can say is if you've watch a lot of Korean thriller, you will really know what will happen next. Its sure a miss this time, and boring too.