Baek Yoon-sik
Sim Deok-su
Overview
After people in his town start turning up dead, a grumpy landlord is visited by a man who recounts an unsolved serial murder case from 30 years ago that may hold the clue to what is happening now.
Cast
12 people
Reviews
4 min readThe Ghosts We Keep Forgetting
I’ve seen this trick before—the small-town serial killer, the decades-old cold case dredged up by a stranger’s arrival, the way the past isn’t just prologue but a living, breathing thing that refuses to stay buried. It’s a familiar rhythm in crime thrillers, one that The Chase leans into with the confidence of a film that knows its audience will recognize the beats. But what keeps me watching isn’t the mystery itself, or even the promise of its resolution.
It’s the way the film lingers in the spaces between the clues, in the quiet moments when the characters aren’t chasing answers but simply trying to outrun the weight of their own histories.
Kim Hong-sun, the director, has a knack for turning procedural tropes into something more intimate. This isn’t a film about the thrill of the hunt; it’s about the exhaustion of it. The town in The Chase feels lived-in, not just in the way its streets are shot—damp, narrow, perpetually overcast—but in the way its people move through them.
There’s a weariness to the performances, a sense that everyone is carrying something they’d rather not name. Baek Yoon-sik plays the grumpy landlord, Mr. Park, with a kind of stubborn inertia, as if he’s spent so long ignoring the world that he’s forgotten how to engage with it.
When a stranger (Sung Dong-il) shows up at his doorstep with a story about an unsolved murder from 30 years ago, Park’s first instinct isn’t curiosity. It’s irritation. Of course it is.
The past is always an inconvenience.
Audience Opinions
Limited evidence
Audience 7.2/10
"A gripping yet uneven crime thriller with strong performances but a convoluted plot."
The film draws praise for its tense atmosphere and the compelling performances of its lead actors, particularly Baek Yoon-sik and Sung Dong-il, who bring depth to their roles. latestnetflix.com's read is that however, the story’s complexity and occasional pacing issues leave some viewers frustrated, feeling the narrative loses focus amid its twists.
What viewers praise
- Strong lead performances Baek Yoon-sik and Sung Dong-il deliver standout performances, adding emotional weight to the crime thriller setup.
- Tense atmosphere The film’s moody visuals and suspenseful tone create an engaging, immersive experience.
- Intriguing premise The crime-mystery plot hooks viewers early with its promise of suspense and intrigue.
Common complaints
- Convoluted plot Some viewers find the story overly complicated, with twists that feel forced or hard to follow.
- Pacing issues The film’s momentum stumbles at times, with slow sections that disrupt the tension.
- Underdeveloped side characters Supporting roles lack depth, making it harder to invest in their arcs.
Recommended for
Crime thriller enthusiasts Fans of Korean suspense films Viewers who enjoy character-driven mysteries
Full Plot (Spoilers)
Spoiler warning
This section contains the full plot, including major story reveals. Overview above stays spoiler-free.
Buzz & Rumors
Public reportsBaek Yoon-sik did the rain fights himself.
Seventy years old. More than twenty-six films. Thirty-seven dramas. Debut in 1970. No young stars on the poster. Baek and Sung Dong-il carry The Chase, Kim Hong-sun's serial-killer buddy picture from the webtoon Aridong Last Cowboy. Baek told The Korea Times, sitting in a Samcheong-dong cafe the week before release, that he rode the scooter to every crime scene and fought in the rain with no double. "Shim is not a good fighter and he is old but he resists and keeps getting up." latestnetflix.com's view is that they shot an action scene in the mud on three rainy winter days.He lost all the heat in his body. He did not get hurt 
.
A reporter compared him to Liam Neeson in Taken. He disagreed on the spot. Neeson was a former spy. Baek is a landowner and a key repairman. The mentality is the overlap, not the skill set . He took the part after reading the original book. In that story, Shim accidentally kills his younger brother, covering the boy's mouth to keep him silent when North Koreans attack their house during the war. Trauma about death. Self-made. Strict. "I like the suffix 'ing' of the present continuous tense. My career is still in progress," he said, and then quoted the line about art being long .
Sold in a bundle with the Train to Busan guy. Next Entertainment World dated the film 29 November 2017. Six days earlier, Contents Panda had already sold it to Netflix in a three-picture package with Yeon Sang-ho's Psychokinesis and Yang Woo-seok's Steel Rain. Rob Roy, Netflix VP of content acquisition, put Yeon's name first. Kim Jae-min at Contents Panda said the partnership followed Pandora. Variety's one-line on The Chase was two characters chasing the suspect of a long-unsolved case. Netflix's own press note called it a thriller about a 30-year-old unsolved file , 
. The Korean title is Bandeusi jamneunda. Catch him no matter what .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFr3CYSuYjA
NEW opened it on 565 screens. Box Office Mojo has a $1.29 million first weekend and $3.07 million all in. KOFIC logged 446,780 admissions , . It did not trouble Along With the Gods. EasternKicks caught it at Udine's Far East Film Festival in 2018 and called it a time-filler rescued by its leads, Baek playing against the slick CEO types from Inside Men . Wi Ha-jun, years before Squid Game, is the young Jung-hyuk in the flashbacks. Chun Ho-jin is the older one . The trailer NEW floated still sells a grumpy landlord, overdue rent, and a retired detective who thinks the killer never left Aridong . Netflix still files it under slow-burn Korean thriller, amateur detective, webtoon. The old man on the scooter is why anyone finishes it.
Entertainment rumors and trivia aggregated from public reporting. Treat speculation as unverified unless a cited source confirms it.
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