5/22/12

Countdown

If your life depended on an organ transplant in ten days and the donor was in jeopardy because of an unpaid debt, you would do everything in your power to make sure nothing bad happens! Right? This excellent thriller from South Korea (English captions) surprised our 2012 Seattle International Film Festival audience. It was more complex than we antici- pated and we became more involved than we expected. In addition, it was capably shot and the acting was convincing.

We saw:
  • Jeong Jae-young ("Castaway on the Moon") as Tae Geon-ho, an extremely successful debt collector. He is well-groomed, hand- some, efficient, and very, very effective. He never smiles..... and he always collects! After he quits his job, he decks his smarmy boss, then bows politely before he leaves!
  • Do-yeon Jeon ("My Dear Enemy") is the clever Cha Ha-yeon, a con woman par excellence, with a shady past and a shining future. She had her virginity surgically restored because it suited her. She's glamorous, wealthy, cunning, cold...and in jail.
One day, after a successful debt collection, our hero passes out and awakens in the hospital. The doctor tells him he has liver cancer and has ten days before complete liver failure. Of course he gets a second, third and fourth opinion, but the news is very bad. Transplant surgery must be done in just over a week for him to survive.

Five years earlier his teenage son died. Dad can't remember how it happened because his mind has repressed the memory, but he uses his skip-tracing skills and tracks down five recipients who were given his son's organs. He wants to convince one of them to share a portion of his or her liver out of gratitude. He strikes out until he discovers that the gal just getting out of jail has his son's heart.

Now things begin to happen! We have gangsters, vehicular mayhem, abandoned children, handicapped parents, a ship with hostages, and fisti- cuffs, as allegiances twist, promises break and chaos reigns. This was unpredictable and exciting.