[HanCinema's Film Review] "Missing You - 2016"

Gi-beom (played by Kim Sung-oh) is an alleged serial killer who receives the relatively light sentence of fifteen years on account of the fact that there's only proof he committed one murder, off the word of an apparently anonymous informant. The first step to tolerating "Missing You - 2016" is to not get hung up on legal technicalities. This is the kind of movie where a random unremarkable thug is apparently immune to prosecution since he's never been caught committing murder on videotape, all other evidence being either magically nonexistent or inadmissable.

Advertisement

Anyway, fifteen years later Gi-beom is released from prison apparently none the worse for wear. Detective Dae-yeong (played by Yoon Je-moon) does his best to try and catch Gi-beom again, but fails because the entire police force is aggressively incompetent. Like, supposedly Gi-beom is under surveillance for most of the movie, and yet somehow no one can even prove that he hires prostitutes. Which also strikes me as a parole violation but again, the legal technicalities.

Hee-joo (played by Shim Eun-kyung) is a young woman who wants revenge on Gi-beom, and that's what "Missing You - 2016" is actually building up to thematically. What exactly is Hee-joo's plan, and why does it involve so many scarves? The answer, while it kind of does make sense, runs counter to the generally tortured screenwriting logic that somehow allows Gi-beom to commit crimes in full sight of or even against a police officer yet still sincerely believe he can get off on self-defense somehow.

Looked at purely as a genre thriller, "Missing You - 2016" does have some genuine merits. It can be legitimately tense and spooky when that's the tone writer/director Mo Hong-jin is going for. Consider any scene that takes place with poor lighting, on account of the fact that a character is about to spring a massive trap. There are lots of good, even innovative ways to stab a person, and that's where "Missing You - 2016" is at its best- with its fatal or near-fatal wounds

It's the not-so-fatal wounds where the movie just gets to be frustrating. After having thoroughly established how generally useless the Korean police are, "Missing You - 2016" starts in on Hee-joo's plan, which fails because...Gi-beom is immune to stab wounds somehow. Sure, they might slow him down a little bit, but this is a man who just keeps on truckin' just so long as murder is the end goal. Not to worry, though, since by the end Hee-joo has another plan which incidentally seemed kind of unnecessary and built off a character arc that was more implied than actually seen on-screen.

Of course by then I was just relieved that the movie was ending. "Missing You - 2016" doesn't have much to say. The script is mediocre, and the characters mere archetypes. The continuity in particular is appalling- I found myself becoming increasingly irrationally outraged throughout most of the second half, as events are increasingly comically contrived to make Gi-beom seem like an evil genius when really, it's just that the police are dumb. Ultimately, though, "Missing You - 2016" is too unremarkable to warrant much in the way of emotional reaction

Review by William Schwartz

"Missing You - 2016" is directed by Mo Hong-jin and features Shim Eun-kyung, Yoon Je-moon and Kim Sung-oh.

Available on DVD from YESASIA

DVD (En Sub)