The Chase: Grumpy Old Sleuth

Out of curiosity, I google-translated the Korean title of this movie since the English version The Chase felt somewhat off. As expected, the actual title is no exact match: "Surely Catch." Even taking into account the awkwardness of this original phrase (which is likely idiomatic), "Surely Catch" at least accurately connects to the plot as writer-director Kim Hong-seon's geriatric thriller doesn't concern a gray-haired slumlord racing after criminals on his moped so much as it does a gray-haired slumlord (Baek Yun-shik) who, despite his unending crabbiness, becomes a well-meaning amateur detective hoping to rescue an abducted tenant (Kim Hye-in) who he's nicknamed 205 after her apartment number. He's not alone in his improbable quest.

Along for the ride are a kooky retired cop (Sung Dong-il) and a marginally less goofy, active-duty police officer (Jo Dal-hwan), neither of whom is particularly reliable. Disorientingly complicated with its copycat criminals, traumatized survivors, Alzheimer's subplot, and shadowy flashbacks, The Chase had me wondering if romantic leads were going to continue to grow older and older as we humans continue to live longer and longer ourselves. Maybe after a century of films focused on first loves we're about to usher in a new millennium of feel-good flicks that are suddenly concerned with last chance romances...with death in the background, of course.

The Tayo the Little Bus Movie: Mission Ace: Dude, Where's My Car?

"At the hands of careless humans, our wheels came off and our bodies were smashed into walls countless times," says Bella (Jeon Sook-kyeong), the queen luxury car in Ryu Jung-woo's and Paik Anna's animated children's pic Tayo the Little Bus Movie: Mission Ace. She's right of course. We humans are notorious for mistreating dolls and matchbox cars, rubber ducks and stuffed animals. The three-wheeled, handheld hatchback and the one-eyed, unstuffed teddybear are as representative of childhood as bibs, bonnets, and baby booties. If these damaged toys could talk, no doubt they'd have a strong word or two about their thoughtless owners.

Insert Counterargument Here: Now just one second! Not everyone is so disrespectful!

And yet... Duri (Chong Hye-ok) has forged a real bond with his flashy, red mini-sportscar Ace (Kim Yeong-seon) even if his negligence has accidentally landed his plaything abandoned on a city street. So is the retrieval of this beloved racecar really enough to substantiate an entire feature film? Not really. A big-screen spin-off of the Tayo series, this 45-minute cartoon drags despite its abbreviated running time and has only one major message to impart: The toys that you'd associate most strongly with mankind (pro or con) are the ones most likely to be deadly forces of annihilation!

The Truth Beneath: Institutionalized Violence

Now that police brutality has become ubiquitous in your social media stream as sadistic cops in Minneapolis, Buffalo, Louisville, Austin, NYC, LA, and "name that city" are seen engaging in all sorts of unprovoked violence at the anti-racist protests that have literally swept the world, Lee Kyoung-mi's political thriller The Truth Beneath feels almost quaint with its corrupt political campaign of murder, kidnapping, deception, and power-grabbing. (You mean only a handful of people do the devil's work?) Yet the film's protagonist — a distraught mother (Son Ye-jin) who realizes she didn't really know her only child (Shin Ji-hoon) despite their chummy rapport — isn't on a journey confronting the evils of patriarchal, white-supremacist capitalism. She's more like Alice chasing the rabbit down the hole into the world of weirdness.

So... Newsflash! Her daughter's in a quirky girl band, fraternizes with peers with matching haircuts, has her room bugged by her dad's primary political rival, and stars in a few arty videos shot by her adoring schoolmates. Mom herself too has her stranger side which includes self-mutilation to get what she wants and mutilating an art installation with a pink acoustic guitar when she doesn't. Whether the husband/father (Kim Ju-hyuk) will end up an elected official is weirdly not central to the story despite the race being referenced regularly. When everyone's engaged in despicable behavior, who gives a hoot who wins? Politicians will fail us once again.