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[HanCinema's Film Review] "Hide And Seek"

As this movie opens we're introduced to a poor, somewhat disheveled neighborhood. It would be a fairly unremarkable place except for the presence of a woman with nice shoes clattering home with a rather hostile disposition. She seems irrationally angry. Even when perfectly justified reasons pop up that justify her rage, this woman is going out of her way to get offended and outraged by everything nearby, and it's difficult to escape the feeling that while this all may make her feel better, it's not dealing with any of the actual dangers.

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"Hide and Seek" is at its best when examining with this seedy undercurrent of everyday life. The movie is primarily a thriller, and the technical execution is excellent. There's genuine tension and mystery behind each scene, and it's never quite clear how any of these individual moments are going to end. The titular theme of the child's game is on full display in these moments, as much of this tension is built by wondering who's hiding where as another character tries to seek them out.

The class element is evident from the beginning. The main victims are characters of social privilege whose right to that privilege is a dubious one. In the strictest sense, of course, no one really deserves anything, but it's significant that the movie's storyline is set into motion by the main character's fear of somehow losing what's been earned, even though there's little actual threat as long as the doors are locked. There are scenes where characters violently attack ghosts, just so they can strike back at something.

I mean metaphorical ghosts rather than literal ones. While "Hide and Seek" has the feel of a horror movie, it succeeds primarily by presenting a very down-to-earth situation with no apparent supernatural elements. The real fear is that doubt which comes at us from the inside. All the villain really needs to do to be effective is be terrifying- once fear has been put into the hearts of the gentry, that alone is enough to give them no peace.

Unfortunately, the final act starts making big missteps by finally unmasking the tormentor. The visage of an actual character is no match for the metaphorical terror we'd seen so far, and seeing this person in the flesh starts to beg lots of logical plot questions that until that point hadn't seemed relevant, mainly because the presumption was that the movie would eventually give them a better explanation. The movie's general adherence to realism also takes a hit, as the final setpiece involves lots of characters taking outrageous physical wounds without actually dying, to the point where I had to wonder whether they were hitting each other with wiffle bats.

All this works to undermine the themes "Hide and Seek" had so effectively been building up. Still, the effect isn't completely ruinous. Most of the movie's set-up is still quite scary and effective even if it doesn't build up to something terribly meaningful, and it never forgets the general sense of class consciousness that really lets the fear factor hit home. Let down by its lackluster ending, "Hide and Seek" fails to achieve genuine broad appeal- but it's still well worth the effort for fans of effective thrillers.

Review by William Schwartz

"Hide and Seek" is directed by Huh Jung and features Son Hyun-joo, Moon Jeong-hee and Jeon Mi-sun.

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