An artistic noir-thriller for those who can see beyond what they are shown.
This was absolute great. I was so impressed by how seamlessly they showed the two storylines parallely. I saw saw many people commenting its slow, BUT, this kind of pacing is nature in a noir-thriller film. Its frustrating to watch Yeong Ha slowly losing his shit because of Yeong A. But thats the point. The story painstakingly make you experience the turmoil that he goes through and eventually decides to let the hell break loose.

Its actually good writing. The character Seong A was so great. As in I really wanted to smack the hell out of her towards the end. The character of Seong A is a crazy psycho with a powerful backing until her father decided he cannot take anymore of this monster. So many people cannot fully take in the character because they might be looking for a reason behind the craziness. No. There's no necessity for a reason behind someone's craziness or psycho behaviour. And that's what makes them dangerous. They are unhinged, unreasonable and can burst anytime. Seong A was such a mental character and Go Min Si portrayed it with all the madness it required.

There was a time when I did felt the story lacking. The disconnect between the past and the present after Gi Ho killed the serial killer and met with Yeong Ha. But I am glad they finally drew the circle towards the end.

Another aspect that troubled me at first but then I made my peace around it was Yoon Bo Min's character. Like initially I felt why is she just watching without proactively taking any action. But then I remembered the convo young Bo Min had with her senior. That convo gave the glimpse that her character was never the one to 'look' or focus on solving a crime. Rather, she was an observer, to whom all this was a game or puzzle which would fall into place once she decides. Of course her role as a police officer refined her throughout the years. In the present timeline, she knew somewhere something was amiss. She looked around for the missing pieces and did not get into the playground untill she got hold of most of the pieces that she needed to complete the picture. And when she did she made sure to get it right. This I believe is a great detailing to the character.

Another thing that makes me point out the brilliance is the Killer's cap that Yeong Ha kept at his house. The killer gave it to Ki Ho when he found him on stairs. Ki Ho made sure that he wore the same cap to kill the one who destroyed his life. Later Yeong Ha wore the cap when he made his resolve to get rid of Seong A. I feel like him keeping the cap was an indication that he won't be the same Yeong Ha who decided to turn a blind eye but instead would do anything to protect his people.

One more thing was the story of Ki Ho's family. How something so usual in their life would turn out to be a disaster that ruined their whole family. To be honest, that was an angle to murder stories that I haven't seen before. Like yes, victim's story, the culprit's story, a brief mention of the trauma of the witness, but I honestly never thought about what would happen to the other stakeholders of the event - like Ki Ho's family, who happened to be the owners of the motel where the body was found and the culprit was caught.

What I am trying to say here is if one decides to read a little more deeper into cinema, its direction, you would see so many underlying stories that make the whole stories so much better.