MISSING

MISSING

(a.k.a. 'Sil Jong')

We head over to South Korea for some bitterly nasty fare in MISSING - quite obviously the North Koreans haven't seen much of their neighbours' horror cinema of late, or they'd definitely avoid winding these people up. MISSING is a well-made excursion into isolation and torment with shades of real-life ordeals, not least an actual Korean murder case which the film declares as its basis. It certainly bludgeons its message home, although some of that impact is mitigated by its strong similarities to other recent horror films.

We are introduced to two sisters whose relationship is close but changing, as Hyun-ah (Jeon Se-hong) departs adolescence and uses her newfound independence to hook up with a potential film director, Mr. Hong. He takes the girl into the boonies to talk about her future and, on the way home, they stop at a local farm for some of the famed chicken soup. The proprietor, Pan-gon (Moon Seong-geun) seems amiable enough, but as he's getting on in years, he asks Hong to help him move some sacks. Hong agrees, leaving Hyun-ah to briefly chat to her sister on the phone and wait for him outside.

That's where their problems start. Pan-gon attacks and slays Hong, but there's a far worse fate in store for the girl, who it seems he wanted all along. She is kidnapped, confined, and - as you might expect from Far Eastern cinema of this kind - we're very quickly thrust into grisly, torturous territory here, with sexual threat and dehumanisation quickly forming the bedrock of Hyun-ah's fate. Pan-gon makes his intentions perfectly clear: Hyun-ah can cooperate with him and accept her role of slave, or she will die. But she has been missed, and her sister's loyalty is about to be put to the test…

Although it comes on very strong, MISSING does feel like part of a now very familiar - perhaps over familiar - canon. If it did not, then my review of this film would be very different, but I find it impossible to treat a film as if it exists within a vacuum. Indeed the film was not made in a vacuum, and seems content to retread old ground in places, which reduces the impact of its galling cruelty. Once I have seen someone being tied to a chair for the fiftieth time, I find it much harder to differentiate this instance from another. There is a sense of inevitability about how MISSING will play out. However, although you may guess where the plot is going, the performances are strong enough to maintain tension along the way. The two sisters in particular deserve merit for their roles; both women act panic, fear and disgust really well.

I was also struck by the similarity between MISSING and another recent horror, THE LOVED ONES. Now, THE LOVED ONES was released later than MISSING (according to IMDb), and I have no way of knowing whether either filmmaker saw the work of the other - but there are a lot of elements in common. The normal-but-nasty lead, the flawed kidnap and imprisonment, the warped domestic dynamic, the revelation that all of this has happened before…and the scene where Pan-gon sits down opposite Hyun-ah, now dressed in her best, to proffer a celebratory cake and candles as a mirror-ball bathes the room in coloured light…it just all seems so familiar somehow, and even if all of this is one big coincidence, noticing so many common elements is distracting.

Where the film stands out from the plethora of endurance horrors which preceded it is in the level of sexual nastiness it develops. Pan-gon is unequivocal about what he expects Hyun-ah's role to be and although the scenes are not gratuitous, they're pretty brutal. Overall I was struck by how misandrist this film was: there isn't a male character in here that isn't deceptive, oversexed, self-interested, dismissive, boorish or downright stupid. The end sequence only adds to this effect.

MISSING is a competent, though derivative horror which puts its female leads through a range of ordeals and derives some excellent performances from them in the process. It is certainly a cruel film, though a cruel film in an ever-lengthening line of cruel films, albeit one which does deliver on tension and grisly violence - if you like that sort of thing.

The film is shot in 1.78 : 1 and looks good - not as slick or polished as a lot of Korean cinema, but with good colouration - though with a pinkish caste - and good balance. The film is subtitled, and the audio options are the standard 2.0 or 5.1. Also on this DVD we have 18 chapters, the original movie teaser, the original trailer, and an 'also available' trailers section with some rather incongruous choices, 'Storm Warriors', 'Mulan', 'Raging Phoenix', Force of Five', 'Fist of Legend', 'Kill Zone', 'Invisible Target', Tai Chi Master', 'Robin B Hood', 'The Shinjuku Incident', 'The Myth' and 'Fatal Move'.

Review by Keri O'Shea


 
Released by Showbox Media Group
Region 2 - PAL
Rated 18
Extras :
see main review
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