The Accidental Detective
Director: Kim Jeong-hoon
Year: 2015
Rating: 5.5
Country: Korea
This
would be more appropriately titled The Annoying Detective. One of my peeves
about Korean cinema is that there is so much shouting in some of the films.
Friends yell at one another, husbands at their wives, wives at their husbands,
bosses at their employees, strangers at strangers. And then the hitting on
the head. I am not sure if it says anything about Korea but there are a lot
of films where people just yell at each other over everything. This film
has so much shouting that at times, I wanted to bail out. Just shut up already.
You are giving me a headache. It is part yell, part whine which makes it
even more irritating. But the odd thing is that other than the damn barrage
of yelling, this was a pretty good film. A decent mystery, an odd ball pairing
in a buddy movie and a very suspenseful ending. I had a feeling that there
was going to be a sequel and in fact there was and I hope I can come across
it someday.
Kang (Kwon Sang-woo) is a detective hobbyist.
He studies cold cases off the internet and reads all the detective novels.
He also runs a bookstore and is married with two children. Lots of yelling
there. And is a nuisance at the local police station, butting into cases
- to the point where the captain Noh, nicknamed the White Shark, wants to
arrest him. More yelling. All this yelling mind you is for comical purposes.
It is kind of a trademark of Korean films. When his police friend is arrested
for murdering the wife of a mutual friend, he and the Captain join forces
to find the real killer. Constant yelling at each other. He is the gruff
veteran cop with a short fuse and Kang is like the guy you can't shake off.
It doesn't help that at times he has to bring his baby along and we get Two
Men and a Baby humor for a while.
Kang turns out to be brilliant spinning
all the clues together and pointing them in the right direction. Noh hates
to admit it but he is given one week to solve it, or he has to resign and
he needs Kang. It becomes very complicated with numerous suspects - all with
solid alibis - and they are running out of time as the friend goes on trial.
I am not entirely sure I followed all of it and could tell you how the murders
were done, but by the end the two of them have grown on you. Just stop yelling
please.
