Blood Rain (Hyeol-ui nu) (tbc)
- Run time: 1 hour 57 mins
- Language: Korean
- Genre: Thriller / Drama
- Release date: 1st January 2005
- Starring: Cha Seung-Weon, Park Yong-Woo, Ji Seong
- Directed by: Kim Dae-Seung
Plot Synopsis
Donghwa Island, it's said, makes the best paper in Joseon Dynasty Korea, and so an arson attack on a boat-load of paper intended for the imperial court brings a team of investigators from the mainland. They include the young, rational-minded Weon-Gyu (Cha Seung-Weon proving at last that he's more than just a pretty face), who has a talent for what later centuries will call forensics. But no sooner have the mainlanders disembarked than a series of murders begins, apparently fulfilling a shamanist prophecy. Weon-Gyu has to fight his way through thickets of superstition and fear, not to mention smokescreens of official obstruction and local duplicity, to uncover a conspiracy that implicates him in ways he never imagined... Second-time director Kim Dae-Seung (a long-serving assistant to the great Im Kwon-Taek) has come up with a terrific period detective thriller, anchored in splendid performances and vivid production design. (The 19th-century paper mill in particular is a knockout.) Like The Draughtman's Contract, this turns out to be a murder mystery which illuminates both the darkness in human hearts and the entire philosophy of a bygone age. Intellectually and emotionally satisfying, it's an intense pleasure.