[HanCinema's Film Review] "Intruders"

Sang-jin (played by Jun Suk-ho) is an older unattractive writer who's not very good at talking. To finish off his new screenply, Sang-jin retreats to rural northeast South Korea. In typical introspective form, his social interactions consist largely of awkward conversations and awkward silences. Sang-jin is just not a particularly likable person. It's then that something shocking finally happens and then...

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...Well actually we just get another long stretch of awkward conversation and awkward silence. "Intruders" is a pretty weird movie. The narrative is set up like a murder mystery. We have all these characters with all their own vaguely suspicious quirks. It feels like the movie wants us to guess which one is the real perpetrator. The problem is, there's nothing here that can be reasonably interpreted as a clue.

Consider the social interactions from the last time you went out of town. There were friendly people, or people who didn't talk much, or people who were just jerks. Of this group, which one do you suppose is an axe murderer? Now, obviously, this is a loaded trick question. "Intruders" as a whole is the exact same gimmick. We're given a large amount of information that's basically completely worthless. The story isn't dealing with characters here so much as a vague set of personal impressions.

And of course, they all see each other the exact same way. The comedy of manners that ensues after Sang-jin discovers the actual plotline deals absurdly with the notion of arbitrary skepticism. Let's accept for a moment that this one character has concocted a preposterous, easily disproven theory to evade the long arm of the law. Wait, why? No seriously, is there ever any actual reason for a person to make that kind of assumption? Especially a police officer when dealing with someone under his full custodial control?

Well, because it's paranoid. The principle basis upon which the ego is built is that every single person in the world is a jerk except for me. Because I am the main character in my own life. Yes it sounds stupid when described like that but be honest. We all make that assumption from time to time and hopefully learn from our experiences. But thrust in a crisis situation, people, all people, act really dumb, and typically disaster strikes before they gain a chance to grow as a person.

And so it is with the characters in "Intruders". This is a film about how people are dumb in an egotistical way. This is no slasher film starring idiot teenagers who practically gyrate in front of the camera waiting for the killer to come disembowel them. These are characters who act so dumb because they think they're so smart. In all honesty I can't make up my mind as to how clever this movie really is with these revelations. So much of it is loaded in Sang-jin's awkward social interactions, and whatever the context, awkward social life isn't exactly an exciting thing to watch. By the end, though, "Intruders" provides a fairly solid reminder that just because a person doesn't speak with the wit of a bard doesn't make them a potential murderer.

Review by William Schwartz

"Intruders" is directed by Noh Young-seok and features Jun Suk-ho, Oh Tae-kyung, Choi Moo-sung and Han Eun-sun.

 

Trailer