Su-min (Lee Ju-won) witnesses a brutal murder in broad daylight just
across the street. The bad thing though, the three masked assailants spot
him witnessing the murder and come to his apartment to smash his head ...
upon which Su-min wakes up naked in the street, not far from his
apartment. Somehow he makes it back without causing too much of a
commotion ... to find his own body in his place, beheaded, and the masked
men come after him again - upon which he wakes up in the street again,
this time fully clothed, and on his way home he tries to save a boy from
being beaten by his own father but gets stabbed to death by the boy - who
turns out to be himself. But again (and again), Su-min wakes up in the
street in what becomes more and more of a labyrithine story ... I
would be lying if I said Hon-ja makes a lot of sense ... and that's
the film's strength, actually, it's total abandoning of linear
storytelling in favour of creating an entirely weird and yet totally
coherent experience in which things make total sense in a totally
non-sensical way - and still, the film doesn't try to be totally
brain-heavy but succeeds to tell its odd story in a thriller context,
complete with chases, fights, murders and everything. In all honesty, the
film feels a little as if David Lynch had directed Groundhog Day as
a thriller - but without the director trying to ape Lynch or Groundhog
Day in any way, it's a totally original piece of work, and a very
weird one for it.
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