Helpless (Hwa-cha). 2012.
Written and directed by Byun Young-joo, from the novel All She Was Worth by Miyabe Miyuki. With Lee Sun-kyun, Kim Min-hee, Cho Seong-ha, Kim Byeol.
When a woman (Kim Min-hee) disappears just before her wedding, her hapless fiancée (Lee Sun-kyun) enlists his detective cousin to find her, and they find unsettling answers in a corrupt economic system. This surprising thriller, adapted from a Japanese bestseller by a filmmaker best known for feminist nonfiction films, provides an original and provocative perspective on debt and post-IMF financial crisis in Korean society. 117 min.
“Helpless is definitely a superior Korean mystery suspenser, and though not quite Hitchcock, its many twists and reversals should be clever enough to keep most viewers gripped and guessing” – James Mudge (BeyondHollywood.com)
