K-Movie Review: Monster

[Captain Multifandom]

Before I get started, I just want to highlight that there will be spoilers (and by spoilers, I mean the entire plot line, so if you want to watch this film, skip the story) in this post, and Lee Min-ki fangirling. Off we go!

 

I was watching Shut Up Flower Boy Band when I realised that I really liked one of the actors (Lee Min-ki, teehee), so I looked up more of his work and found Monster, a horror/psychological thriller/action film in which he plays the main psychopath, Tae-soo. As I like these types of films, I started watching it on KissAsian.com, and it's quite a good film. The story begins with us being introduced to Bok-soon, a headstrong young woman with learning disabilities, and it almost immediately tells us two things: that she is extremely close to her sister, Eun-jung, and that she is not liked by her fellow market-sellers. Soon after this, we see Tae-soo's adoptive uncle and elder brother discussing a woman who filmed his uncle slapping her, and wants money in exchange for the video. Tae-soo's adoptive brother, Ik-sang, immediately goes to him and asks him to go to her house and find it. In this scene, Tae-soo kills two people, one graphically onscreen and one offscreen. Tae-soo then goes to the girl's house, and when she doesn't let him in, he jumps over the wall and kills her offscreen. It is then that he enters the house and discovers her 10 year old sister, Na-ri. Tae-soo searches the house and kidnaps Na-ri, taking her back to his house in the middle of the forest, where he tells her to run, and that he would kill, or try to kill, anyone she asked for help. He waits until he finishes his drink before following her, but not before Na-ri has found her way to Bok-soon and Eun-jung's house. She hides there until the morning and then goes out with Bok-soon and Eun-jung, but Bok-soon realises she has left her bag. When she finds it, she hears a scream and runs back to where she left Na-ri and Eun-jung and finds Tae-soo attempting to strangle Eun-jung onscreen with Na-ri nowhere to be seen. Bok-soon hits Tae-soo with a rock and leaves him out cold before carrying Eun-jung away and leaning her against a tree whilst she finds help. Tae-soo, after waking up, finds Eun-jung dead and takes her back to his house before Bok-soon gets back and finds her gone. Bok-soon is devastated and takes it out on Na-ri when she reappears back at the house. When Bok-soon has calmed down, she plans her revenge against Tae-soo with Na-ri's help. When they're ready, they find their way to his house, where Na-ri stays as lookout and Bok-soon enters the house through an open window. She makes her way down to the basement, where she finds pottery and an empty shelve with a tag saying 'Park Eun-jung' on it (we have discovered before this scene that Tae-soo burns his victims and uses their ashes in his pottery). Bok-soon then finds Eun-jung's pot and is just about to touch it before Na-ri warns Bok-soon that Tae-soo is back. Long story short, Bok-soon hides and then escapes, but Na-ri is caught by Tae-soo and is pressured into telling him where the phone is. Na-ri and Tae-soo then travel to a nearby station, where Na-ri opens a locker and gives Tae-soo the phone. Tae-soo then hands the phone over to Ik-sang, and Na-ri escapes into Bok-soon's arms, but Tae-soo chases them until he is held up by some soldiers he runs into. Ik-sang, meanwhile, finds the video on the phone and watches it. We find out here that Tae-soo and Ik-sang's uncle paid her for him to slap her, and potentially rapes her too, although we don't see any of this. Ik-sang phones his uncle and tells him that he knows, and tells him to meet at his mother's shop (his abusive father was killed by Tae-soo when he was younger). When Ik-sang gets there, he finds some of his friends, assassins, and asks them to kill Tae-soo (which he already tried earlier in the film, but failed when Tae-soo managed to kill the hired assassin). Ik-sang then phones Tae-soo, asking him to come to the shop. Tae-soo agrees, but beforehand he tracks Bok-soon and Na-ri down to a police station and takes Na-ri whilst Bok-soon is in the toilet, leaving a note telling Bok-soon where to go. Tae-soo then locks Na-ri in the car and enters the shop, realising halfway through eating that the men on the table behind him are too quiet. Tae-soo kills most of the four men graphically onscreen and sits back down at the table and begins laughing, whilst his mother, Kyeong-ja begins reprimanding Ik-sang for even thinking of such a thing. When they realise he is laughing, though, they begin to join in, hoping he sees it as a joke, but one of the four assassins comes up behind Tae-soo and begins graphically smashing his head in. He gets seven or eight hits in before he realises that Tae-soo is probably dead (he isn't). Ik-sang and the one man left then open Tae-soo's car and take Na-ri out before locking Tae-soo's lifeless body in there. Kyeong-ja then attempts to get Na-ri to eat, but is met with silent tears from her. Ik-sang tries to take Na-ri away at this point, but Kyeong-ja tries to protect her. The assassin then falls to the ground with blood pouring from his mouth, and the trio notice a bloodied Tae-soo standing in the doorway. Tae-soo then turns the light off and proceeds to beat Kyeong-ja and Ik-sang to death onscreen, which we see through a window. Tae-soo then grabs Na-ri and tries to strangle her, mirroring Eun-jung's death earlier in the film, but at this moment Bok-soon runs in and stabs Tae-soo in the stomach, saving Na-ri and lying her down in the corner. Thinking she is dead, Bok-soon starts screaming and launches herself at Tae-soo, which begins the most graphic scene in the film. Bok-soon and Tae-soo, both already injured, start a fight which ends with Bok-soon strangling Tae-soo to death, sobbing. After realising he is actually dead, she returns to Na-ri and finds her alive, but soon after, Ik-sang and Tae-soo's uncle appears in the doorway and sees the dead bodies on the ground with Bok-soon and Na-ri huddled in the corner. He then asks for the phone, which Bok-soon finds and hands over. The film ends with Bok-soon taking Na-ri in as her sister in place of Eun-jung and them living happily ever after. It has its good and bad moments, but it's fairly well acted with enough scary moments and blood to warrant the horror theme, and Lee Min-ki is probably the best onscreen psychopaths ever. I actually got chills when he appeared on screen just due to his excellent facial expressions and generally psychotic nature. It also has a happy ending, which is great when the film was so dark. Recommended if you don't mind blood and psychos.

My rating: 6/10, for a few reasons:

1. A little unrealistic, especially when Tae-soo had been stabbed and yet was still fighting like nothing had happened. I know people can find adrenaline in the strangest situations, but I don't see how this would work.

2. The phone is virtually insignificant in the end.

3. A bit too much crying.

4. Bok-soon and Na-ri have continuous and pointless arguments. 

5. A few too many humorous moments, but as most of the humour is psychotic, I'll let it slide. 

But at the end of the day, who cares because this film had Lee Min-ki, and he basically carries the whole film.

(Sorry, this was a bit too long.)

[Mccuish]

I saw this movie on KissAsian and I thought it was a great movie.

[kookiekandlez]

I loved this movie

Great from start to finish

[CutiieAngiie]

It was a great movie :D

[ShineeVIP]

I loved this movie

Great from start to finish