The Humanist (2001)

Directed by Mu-yeong Lee

Starring Jae-mo Ahn

A black comedy/thriller that falls far too short on the humour (as dark as it is) and fails as a thriller. One of the problems is it tries to be too clever, another is the cast, not convincing in any way at all.

This film is about a spoiled brat who while driving with his two retarded friends accidentally kills a policeman. The policemans partner sees a way of making a quick buck out of the death and demands a huge amount of cash to keep quiet. The only way he can find to raise the cash is to kidnap his own father and use the ransom to pay off the cop.

Of course, relying on his two buddies everything and anything that can go wrong does which leads to a lot of double crossing leaving nobody unscathed.

This type of film has been done far better with the likes of "Shallow Grave" and to be honest its one Ill never bother with again. Funnily this is one of two really bad Korean films where Chan-wook Park is listed among the writing credits, the other being A Bizarre Love Triangle.

So unfortunately one for the scrap heap, it didnt help that the transfer was absolutely diabolical. The subtitles hadnt even been checked, they contained innumerable translation faults some of which made no sense at all.

Cheers Trev

BBFC rated 15

Available on R1 ntsc and R2 Pal from Taiseng. 

And a brief note to Taiseng, start double checking the subtitles on your releases, they're not good enough and not just for this film.