H (2002)

Movie Rating R Contains: Strong Language Violence Graphic Violence Gore

Director: Jong-hyuk Lee Movie Genre: Crime, Thriller Country: South Korea H Score Card The following scores are based on a 0.0 to 10.0 rating scale Hover your mouse pointer over the name of each scoring category below for a description Direction: 5.0 Writing: 4.2 Acting: 4.8 Cinematography: 5.0 Sound and Score: 5.0 Functionality: 3.0 Presentation: 4.6 Genre Comparison: 4.0 General Comparison: 4.0 Overall: 4.4 Reviewed 2006-01-02 02:40:34

Writer-director Jong-hyuk Lee's H has an interesting premise. One year after serial killer, Shin Hyun is imprisoned, someone is murdering in the exact manner that Shin Hyun did. The lead detective on the case, Kim Mi Yun, played by Jung-ah Yum, has to find out who is behind these crimes. At the same time, she is still coping with her partner's suicide, as a result of the previous crimes.

The presentation of the story is this movie's main weakness. The camerawork is flat and uninteresting, the sound is purely functional, and the acting is mediocre at best. The choppy editing and short scenes are ineffective. The character development is almost nonexistent and the scenes where Kim Mi Yun is mourning her partner while smoking, add nothing to the movie. These scenes only serve to make the movie longer.

Although H has many flaws, it is not a terrible movie. It shares many similarities with Kiyoshi Kurosawa's masterpiece, Cure. While watching this, I found myself wondering if the reason I was so unimpressed with this movie was because I had seen Cure first.

Most of H is bland and uninteresting and the ending is too unbelievable. The last few scenes are gratuitous and feel like they were included solely to give the movie a shocking twist ending. I do not regret watching this movie, but I would only recommend it to people who have not seen Cure yet, or to people who have seen all of the other suspenseful Asian crime dramas and are looking to kill some time.