Missing (2009)

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

I feel as my current rating says it all, and I'm the fan of revenge thrillers.Korean revenge thrillers are usually gory, exploitative, mean spirited; sometimes over the top but the production, ideas and fun factor are on par. What has happened here?OK, so it was gritty and grimy in parts, but what else? Pretty poor execution and weak story line as far as revenge thrillers go. I felt it was uninspired and just dull while trying to catch up with better genre entries.The psycho killer looks like an old lady, our heroine lacks a few dozen pounds...how're these two underwhelming people going to hold the film on their shoulders, and better yet, provide some memorable and obligatory confrontation(fight) scenes? Even infamous police officers lacked much needed comedic skills, these people were just not funny and were very pale overall.My attempts to relate to at least one character, smile or feel emotional now and then were barren...it just never happened. We have some typical pinku-type violence incorporated (abduction, rape, torture) but it just isn't pushing the right buttons. Sure, like already mentioned, some of it was unpleasant, as expected, but far from the level this genre has gotten us used to. Maybe I'm spoiled by much more effective, slick and superior films in the same vein? Cartoonish and one dimensional misogynistic males, anorexic or bimbotastic females....very superficial and enough for average exploitation flick, but for this genre, too simplistic and not good enough.But, as far as (mostly off screen) violence it delivers occasionally, so not all's lost... Uninspiring and non charismatic leads, and unsatisfying ending combined with at least a couple of stupid calls and secondary characters that don't add up to tension, plot or anything much, grants this generic and forgettable picture an average score...lacks the impact, vision and the direction superior films of the ilk have...well, we can't all excel at what we do, can we?

The lead in the film is on a weekend trip with her married boss. The place they are to stay is next to the property of an old farmer. The farmer kills her boss, then imprisons her.The farmer is a want-to-be songwriter, and he regales her with a song that he wrote using a karaoke machine while feeding her cake and coca cola. He uses frosting as a lubricant.After ten days, the protagonist's sister follows the small number of leads she has to the correct area. The police tell the sister to get lost; there was not enough evidence for them to devote police resources to mount a search.The protagonist's health starts its slide, but the kidnapper insists on oral sex. That does not go well. The sister finds the farmer, but does not find the confined protagonist.After more digging, the sister gets more of an investigation, but the farmer was prepared for it. The police dismiss the sister's interest. Later the sister runs the farmer down by accident; he lures her to his place, and imprisons her.One of the locals finally figures it out, and tries to extort some of the farmer's land from him. The farmer is a bit careless in disposing of the sister's van; this gets the cops involved again. So, that turns out to be enough to turn the tide of fortune against the farmer.What are the final consequences of the actions of the principals?------Scores-------Cinematography: 7/10 A bit jerky with frame jumping at times, but often sharp and well-done. In most streaming delivery I watch, I see none of this.Sound: 8/10 Fine. Few problems.Acting: 5/10 What was the character of the farmer's mother for? She could have been just mentioned, or actually have something substantial to say. The size of her presence was just awkward. The lady of negotiable virtue who served as supplier of just the right piece of information could have been done by an actor with a bit more experience. The performance by the actor who played the farmer was the biggest negative. I did not believe any of that performance.Screenplay: 6/10 The story was not too improbable, but it could have been better executed.

This is a "snuff" movie that involves young beautiful women, and a perverted serial killer.An unsuspecting couple ends up in the chicken farm of a murderous killer. The value of the movie is in the beauty of the women involved, and how the authorities eventually figures out or don't figure out what's going on at the guy's chicken farm. This is a pretty solid crime story. The production is good, and the story is also good. It's interesting to watch nice people talking to the antagonist completely oblivious to what's going on. The serial killer guy could have been bit more surreal. He's too one dimensional. Because of this, the story starts off good, but flattens out from the middle part on. The victims are also underutilized, and don't do much to make the movie more interesting.So the movie turned out to be somewhat mediocre despite the good ingredients that it had.

I picked this movie up on the sole reason that it was a Korean movie, and usually Korea make fairly nice movies. "Missing" was another nice movie to come out of Korea.The story is quite simple and doesn't really hold any surprises or twists, which is a shame really. Why? Well, because the story becomes a bit too uninspiring and linear. However, the fact that it is based on a true story does manage to pull the story up a notch. The story is basically about an old man who captures and tortures girls, only to kill them, and the people around him are clueless to his deviant behavior."Missing" has a relative small cast list, but it doesn't matter. Those people in the movie did a good job with their respective roles. The movie was especially carried by the girl playing the first woman to be captured. Her performance was really good, and she did manage to portray a woman in a dire situation quite well.There are a couple of semi-brutal scenes in the movie, but nothing in comparison to some Japanese movies. But the harsh scenes do work well, because they are not in-your-face with gore and effects, and leaves your mind to fill in the blanks that the camera doesn't show. So that was a good aspect to the movie as well.One thing that was tacky and sort of stupid, was the way the movie ended. I mean, come on, it was just too much. And also on the DVD cover it said "all the ingredients of a Friday 13th". Yeah, I hardly think so... But don't let that scare you off.But all in all, "Missing" is a good thriller and provides good entertainment. If you are a fan of Asian movies, then you should check out "Missing", if you haven't already seen it.