H (2002)

What a waste of my time!!!

The greatest movie ever made..!

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

This movie is another very atmospheric film noir from Asia that surprises with a weird main idea and a haunting conclusion while the acting is very emotional and gives a really authentic touch to the characters. Especially the main villain is completely unpredictable and scary by looking so innocent and acting very intelligent.The movie is quite heavy and surely not a pleasure to watch for everyone. The opening scene shows us a dead young woman with her unborn baby brutally ripped out of her body at a garbage incinerator. This is only the beginning of a series of six murders that seem to copy a crazy killer that committed exactly the same crimes a few years ago and went to the police station with his final victim in a big bag to get arrested. Now, a female police officer that has lost her husband that committed suicide as he didn't get over the brutality of the first killer and a young and very emotional police officer with a weird wife suffering amnesia have to solve the case and get drowned into a haunting downward spiral of mystery, brutality and insanity that lead toward a surprising ending.Once again, the Asian cinema creates a unique dark psycho thriller that you won't easily forget and that convinces with an interesting intrigue, very brutal murderers and a brilliant villain. It seems that the Japanese and Koreans never do a bad movie in the whole genre and that we can only distinguish between good and intriguing movies (seven points), very good movies (eight points), excellent and haunting movies (nine points) and masterpieces for the eternity (ten points). This movie is an excellent and haunting trip and comes close to perfection with the only negative point that the main idea is nothing really innovating and new if you know the extreme Asian cinema as much as I do.

This South Korean film is a fairly involving variation on The Silence of the Lambs, right up until it destroys itself with an ending that American cinema outgrew 50 years ago.Detectives Kim and Kang (Jung-ah Yum and Jin-hee Ji) are called in to investigate a series of brutal murders. The vicious slayings of women appear to recreate the crimes of a serial killer name Shin Hyun (Seun-woo Cho) that was apprehended less than a year ago. Kim and Kang suspect that Shin has something to do with these new murders, but as the bodies pile up, the mystery becomes less how is Shin causing these deaths and more why. Complicating matters are the growing frustration of the emotional Kang and the fact that Kim's fiancée and fellow detective killed himself when he failed to stop Shin Hyun's original death spree. They eventually find their answers, though not through any brilliant investigative work, and then we get the really bad ending that more an act of self-immolation than resolution.The most interesting thing about H is that the plot is very much like an American crime drama in most respects, but the emotional resonance and cultural touchstones of the story are completely different. There are a lot of moments in this film where I can tell that the story is trying to say something but I just don't get it. I don't have the Korean common knowledge or insight to appreciate exactly what's supposed to be meaningful in a certain scene or action or line of dialog. But instead of being a problem, that gives a very conventional story an alien and exotic feel. The mystery about Shin Hyun isn't that intriguing, but there's a mystery about the mystery which draws you into the film.Unfortunately, it all leads up to an ending that will likely leave your mouth agape in amazement. Not the good kind, though, where you're left thinking "Wow! I never saw that coming!" This would be the bad kind of amazement, where you're left staring at the screen thinking "You have got to be bleeping kidding me!" I don't want to give it away because maybe other people would have a different reaction to it. However, it is not an exaggeration to say that any serious American film of the last half-century that tried to use this ending would have been laughed out of the theater.This movie also deals with an issue that's the subject of quite a lot of political argument and moral controversy in America. But it leaves you unclear on how Korean culture views the issue. I n some aspects of the story it addresses the subject in a very non-judgmental way, but in others it seems to accept a very moralistic view of the issue. Again, I don't want to give it away, but you have strongly held views of this matter you'll probably have a strong reaction to the way H utilizes it in its story.There's a lot to appreciate about this movie and I enjoyed it, but then there's that sublimely terrible ending. If I knew that you'd like the ending for some inexplicable reason, I'd absolutely recommend you watch H. But if you don't like the ending, as most intelligent people would not, you would likely view watching H as a waste of your time. So, if you see this movie on the shelf of your video store…flip a coin. Maybe you'll get lucky.

The brilliance of this film does not lie in its basic thriller plot nor its characters (The characters are not terribly interesting, but the film does not dwell long on their personal lives; The serial-killer plot, while over-used, is paced enough to keep interest.)Truly, the one reason to watch this film is for the fact that everything--- every action, every line spoken--- leads up to the conclusion. This movie is so perfectly woven that there is not a hair, so to speak, out of place! How few movies are like this one!Basically, if you want a good story, read a book. If you want a well done film, watch "H".

I could go on about the slow pace, bad acting, moodiness, implausibility, contrived and generally ridiculous plot line but suffice to say that I wish it was me getting a bullet in my head at the end of the movie.The movie was dreadful. I'd recommend almost any other Korean movie over this. The sheer number of times I found myself scoffing at the actions of the characters, the plot "twists" or the character "dialogue" were too numerous to count.Any deeper reading about the supposed message of the movie only serves to obscure the fact that this was one horrible flick.The only positive comment I can make (as someone on the message boards noted) was some of the very interesting artwork; I quite liked it.