← Back to Reviews
in
Forgotten, 2017
Student Jin-seok (Kang Ha-Neul) has just moved to a house with his parents and his older brother Yoo-seok (Mu-Yeol Kim). Jin-seok is on anti-anxiety medication, and he is disconcerted by nightmares, a locked room in the house, and strange noises that no one else seems to hear. One night, Yoo-seok is kidnapped. When he is finally returned, he seems somehow . . . different. But is it all in Jin-seok's head?
I liked this movie a lot. In fact, it is hard to talk about why I liked this movie because it manages to pull off several twists that I really never saw coming, and it's the way that these plot points are foreshadowed, revealed, and resolved that I enjoyed so much.
The performances are good, and Kang Ha-Neul makes for a sympathetic lead, which is important as the plot continues to shift and turn. This is the kind of film where all of the answers to what is happening are incredibly outlandish and improbable, but because it finds a firm emotional grounding, we can go along for the ride without too much "are you kidding?!?!". Jin-seok is a sensitive and fundamentally gentle character, which lends unexpected weight to the last act of the film.
I will say that around the 70 minute point, the film takes a very distinct turn, changing its tone and borderline changing its genre. For the first two thirds, it's a sort of thriller/mystery film. The last act, however, veers more into drama territory. To be clear, I liked both "incarnations" of the story, but the film definitely heads into a more somber vibe in the final act. Frankly, what started as more of a trifle ended up being a lot more emotionally heavy than I expected.
A solid thriller with more emotional heft than I expected.
Forgotten, 2017
Student Jin-seok (Kang Ha-Neul) has just moved to a house with his parents and his older brother Yoo-seok (Mu-Yeol Kim). Jin-seok is on anti-anxiety medication, and he is disconcerted by nightmares, a locked room in the house, and strange noises that no one else seems to hear. One night, Yoo-seok is kidnapped. When he is finally returned, he seems somehow . . . different. But is it all in Jin-seok's head?
I liked this movie a lot. In fact, it is hard to talk about why I liked this movie because it manages to pull off several twists that I really never saw coming, and it's the way that these plot points are foreshadowed, revealed, and resolved that I enjoyed so much.
The performances are good, and Kang Ha-Neul makes for a sympathetic lead, which is important as the plot continues to shift and turn. This is the kind of film where all of the answers to what is happening are incredibly outlandish and improbable, but because it finds a firm emotional grounding, we can go along for the ride without too much "are you kidding?!?!". Jin-seok is a sensitive and fundamentally gentle character, which lends unexpected weight to the last act of the film.
I will say that around the 70 minute point, the film takes a very distinct turn, changing its tone and borderline changing its genre. For the first two thirds, it's a sort of thriller/mystery film. The last act, however, veers more into drama territory. To be clear, I liked both "incarnations" of the story, but the film definitely heads into a more somber vibe in the final act. Frankly, what started as more of a trifle ended up being a lot more emotionally heavy than I expected.
A solid thriller with more emotional heft than I expected.