Film Adventure

Today I went to see The Chaser. I actually expected it to be different. First however it is very unsettling, as I find a lot of the violence in Korean cinema is. The film begins with a prostitute going to see a customer on a day she is sick. She leaves her daughter at home to meet the guy only to have this guy trying to bash her head in with a hammer and chisel. Apparently his thing was killing people like this and cutting up the bodies. It does not help we see him, chisel pressed up against a woman's skull, only to to slip about three times before doing this again.

But what I really expected from this film was more a commentary on violence and murder in Korea. This film was based on a real serial killer, Yoo Young-chul, who killed 21 people and ate some of them. This is not the first Korean film about a real Korean serial killer either, as Memories of Murder was based on a series of killings from 1986-91. I'm curious to know how Koreans deal with incidents such as these, as in the United States, serial killers such as Ted Bundy and BTK have enjoyed a form of infamous celebrity from the media.