Review | Intruder film review: Song Ji-hyo the only saving grace in a Korean mystery thriller that’s too painful to watch
- When a man’s sister reappears 25 years after she vanished, he doubts she is who she claims to be and tries to pry deeper into her shady past
- The directorial debut of critic and novelist Sohn Won-pyung features some decent acting by Song Ji-hyo, but Intruder is a silly film from start to finish
2/5 stars
The directorial debut of critic and novelist Sohn Won-pyung has been billed as the year’s “most intense mystery thriller”, but she doesn’t appear to have gleaned much inspiration from her time writing for Korean film journal Cine 21. Intruder is contrived, derivative and relentlessly dumb from the off.
Despite Seo-jin’s reservations, Yu-jin is welcomed into his parents’ home, where her skills as a nurse soon cement her position as the new head of the household. The long-serving staff is replaced, the interiors redecorated and everyone soon falls under her spell. Only Seo-jin – the freewheeling, drug-addled paranoiac – suspects she might be an intruder, and as he pries deeper into her shady past, he becomes convinced that she is also tied to his own recent tragedy.
Too many sloppy thrillers rely on their protagonists behaving as no actual person would, such as not sharing crucial information with other characters and acting upon wild assumptions rather than engaging in rational, level-headed discussion. It’s little more than a lazy device to ensure the heroes stay in harm’s way, or to move the plot forward to the next high stakes encounter, and the viewing experience can be excruciating for the audience.
