The Chaser is a police procedural, but it’s one of the more brutal ones we’ve seen. It isn’t because the crimes depicted are heinous, though they are, and writer-director Na Hong-jin doesn’t shy away from capturing the terror of the serial killer’s crimes. And it isn’t because the main person on the case isn’t police at all but a disgraced cop turned pimp, pulled into it only to find the girls he’s missing. No, it’s because the actual police mess up their own investigation. As Joong-ho learns more about the man he’s searching for, each scene proves the incompetence, the politicking, and the corruption that keeps his former comrades one step behind, and that kept himself from the profession. The Chaser understands what’s at stake each time a case like this occurs.
"A grisly serial-killer thriller that develops into a howl of outrage at the ineptitude of the system."
— Justin Chang
Joong-ho is a dirty detective turned pimp, who's in financial trouble as several of his girls have recently disappeared without clearing their debts. While trying to track them down, he finds a clue that the vanished girls were all called up by the same client, whom one of his girls is meeting with right now.
