Review: Helpless, 2012

Young-joo BYUN is the female director of the documentary film series: The Murmuring(1995).... BYUN showed the deep sorrow of comfort women, forgotten by the public, who served under Japanese imperialism. After the series, she directed 3 commercial films which could not attract the public's concern.

7 years later, BYUN came back with Helpless. It had a box office hit, and also received favorable criticism. Caught two hares. Above all, Min-hee KIM's acting was great.

The original story comes from a Japanese novel. Helpless is a sort of mystery and thriller film, which is about a person who murders and lives with the victim's identity.

Mun-ho(Seon-gyun LEE) and his fiancee, Sun-young(Min-hee LEE) are on the way to give parents wedding invitations. While Mun-ho stopped by a highway rest to buy coffee, Sun-young received a call and suddenly disappeared.

Mon-ho though she was kidnapped and asks his cousin, a former detective, to find her. As search and research go on, they fall into a mystery: Sun-young is a totally different, missing, person. Mon-ho even does not know her real name, Kyung-sun.

Mon-ho finds out she inherited a debt from parents. She failed her marriage by threats of debt collectors, and forced to prostitute. She escaped and started living as a different person, Sun-young. Kyung-sun killed Sun-young, around her age with no family.

beaten, escaped from debt collectors

Now, Kyung-sun is planning to murder again to secure a new ID. The target is Mon-ho's customer, a widow living alone in a countryside. Kyung-sun is about to travel with the widow. Mon-ho chased her to the train station, and caught her asking "Did you love me?" He let her go, saying "Don't get caught"

don't get caught.

She was hunted by police and threw herself from the top. Her dead body is on a railway, bleeding. Mun-ho is crying.

When I saw this film, I hadn't any information on it. I guessed, it was about a guy looking for a missing or kidnapped fiancee.

It is quite speedy development and arouse curiosity, satisfying the convention of the genre. Considering director BYUN's feature films were melodrama, I could not imagine how she directed thriller movie. After watching it, I can say  BYUN mixed the two genres very well: Melodrama and Thriller. Some critics say, Byun should not put melodrama element in it, which means the main female character should be evil or vicious to the end just like I saw the devil, 2010. It would make it more artistic. I don't agree this opinion. Even though Kyun-sun turned into a monster, she must have wanted a loved or happy life.