No-Bumblebee4615 t1_je7zrrx wrote on March 30, 2023 at 1:51 AM

Reply to comment by Metal64Game in Michael Fassbender & Alicia Vikander Set For Thriller ‘Hope’ From ‘The Wailing’ Director Na Hong-Jin by indig0sixalpha

I don’t know, aside from The Wailing, his films aren’t really knock outs. The first 45 minutes of The Chaser is as good as Oldboy and I Saw the Devil, but it meanders like crazy in the second half.

The Yellow Sea starts off well too, but once the story gets going, I lose interest.

The Wailing is pretty fantastic though.

Metal64Game t1_je80bg5 wrote on March 30, 2023 at 1:55 AM

the final act of chaser is amazing imo

No-Bumblebee4615 t1_je83dv0 wrote on March 30, 2023 at 2:19 AM

That’s true, I guess my issue is mainly with the second act. For a good portion of the film we follow the lead character as he searches for a woman who we believe to be dead, while the killer is in police custody. For a thriller, there’s just no tension in this set up.

If they revealed that she was alive earlier and made it clear that the killer would be released by a certain time, we would have been more invested in the lead character’s search.

Metal64Game t1_je9xihk wrote on March 30, 2023 at 2:11 PM

Making the audience unsure of both the stakes and the ticking clock leads to a more visceral and shocking third act. There is tension, but it's never explicit, it's always simmering under the surface instead.