Unlocked (2023) - Korean Thriller Review
If the plot of Netflix's new K-thriller Unlocked is anything to go by, it looks like I'm not the only one who's been bingeing the hit show You.
The gorgeous Lee Na-mi (Chun Woo-hee) is a carefree, and careless, twenty-something student who, like most twenty-something-year-olds, charges through life with her phone firmly glued to her hand, relying on it for every conceivable thing.
After a night of wild partying, the unthinkable happens and Na-mi wakes to find her phone missing! Fear not, gentle Na-mi, for a kindly voiced woman has just rung saying she found your phone on the night-bus, with its screen cracked, and has helpfully left it in for you to be repaired at Woo's Phone Repair.
Crisis averted!
Thoughts and prayers of gratitude for this good techno-Samaritan.
Little does Na-mi know, this was all a premeditated ruse by a baby-faced serial killer (K-pop's Im Si-wan) with a penchant for meticulously stalking his prey through spyware installed on their "newly repaired" phones - ruining their lives first, before going in for the kill.
How long will it take for our stalkee to discover that her every message, call and private moment is being watched via her hacked phone Joe Goldberg from You style?
Will the text book hard-bitten detective (complete with troubled past) Ji-man, currently investigating a series of eerie female homicides, be able to save Na-mi in time? Or will she become another another nameless corpse in the mountains buried beneath a plum tree?
Phone hacking, spyware, and invaded data protection is a scarily relevant topic these days, yet, due to You doing it first, the plot in this film feels "done". The sparse dialogue is perfunctory, and lacks the "meaty, but with crystal sharp wit" that crime efforts such as Memories of Murder, or Beyond Evil are known for.
There are some great twists with a few jaw-drop reveals towards the end, but since the first hour is spent mostly in silence watching the vapid Na-mi live her bana life through her phone screen, the necessary foreshadowing could have been built on a more solid foundation. Perhaps the time constraints as a film did the story a disservice, being spread out over a full series could have done Unlocked true justice.
Na-mi and her gaggle of gal pals are all (for the most part) one-dimensional, with functional Crime Heroine acting from Chun Woo-hee. Im Si-wan is mischievously fiendish (and damned attractive) as the killer Woo, and looks like he's enormously enjoying this ghoulish role, revelling in Na-mi's discomfort.
However, there's not enough context to his background or insight into his motivations for the viewer to really grasp why he's doing what he's doing, or to fully invest emotionally. I wanted the script to properly flesh out Woo's character - he had the potential to be one of the more chilling, psychological characters in the Korean crime canon.
Park Ho-san is warm and genuine as Na-mi's father, and Kim Hee-won is as solid an on-screen detective as you could ask for. There's slick, stylish and impressive camera work at play here, with flashes of tense brilliance from the soundtrack.
Plot tightening, script beefing and tension building aside, this was a strong effort for a first film and I'm excited to see what Kim Tae-joon does next.
Perfect for fans of Through the Darkness or The Good Son, dim the lights, sit back, pour yourself a nice cool glass of Plumade, and get to watching. (Maybe leave the phone off, though!)
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