Our Town – Review

Our Town is set in a small, unnamed town in Korea where four dead women, from an eight-year-old girl to a middle-aged businesswoman, have been found in as many months, strung up and displayed in public places. The killer is much too careful and meticulous to give a chance to police. We’ve seen films like this in the past and it always seems like Asia produces the best serial killers. They’re just way too educated and witty for their own good. One nice thing about this film is that there isn’t a whole lot of surprise. The film is fine with giving away what would be secrets in other films and just uses the information to ratchet up suspense. The question quickly changes from “who done it?” to “what will happen next?”.

The subplot deals with Kyung-ju, who is a struggling novelist who writes violent and gory murder mysteries. When a fierce argument with his landlady ends in her death, he stages the killing so that it would appear like the serial murders that have been occurring in his village recently. This was a significant hindrance as the flashbacks are numerous and play an important role in fleshing out the three primary characters. Like some reviewers claim, this movies main flaw is how convoluted it is, in a very unnecessary manner at times. Especially when it comes to the flashbacks, but I really liked how it all came together at the end. For instance, we see Hyoi’s detailed planning to sneak into police headquarters, and the aftermath, but the actual deed is shown as a flashback of him sitting in a chair.

Also, sometimes the characters do seem to behave unreasonably for their predicaments, which makes you feel as though the writer is trying to shoehorn the characters into the plot. Towards the ending, the editing gets a little chaotic with running through time and seems to lose its ability to focus evenly on the characters, leaving you feeling like at least the crime novelist, who we think of as our principle protagonist, isn’t that important after all. Our Town does not hide the gory details and spectators, on the contrary, it should be noted (positively) to the brutal efficiency of the killing effect of the mise en scene film, but also the staff staged the serial killer.

You could tell that director Gil-Young wanted to attempt something somewhat different and going in with zero expectations I have to say I enjoyed myself quite a bit. Because, in the end, is a better than average serial killer pic with a decent amount of suspense and interesting explorations into a killer’s psyche. Unfortunately, the intelligent story is plagued by wobbly story-telling and the occasional contrivance. All in all, this is a good suspense thriller with good amount of mystery and twist in it, this movie was surprisingly a treat to watch.