‘Killers’ Shopping Mall’, ‘Seonsan’… What should we watch for the new thriller?

[Reporter Lee Jeong-hee]

Last week, two new thrillers were released simultaneously on Disney Plus and Netflix. These are <Killers’ Shopping Mall> and <Seonsan>.

My dead uncle was a weapons dealer.

▲ | Killers’ shopping mall

ⓒ Disney Plus

The opening of <Killers’ Shopping Mall> is an intense action scene taking place in a single-family home on a deserted plain where a wall has collapsed. Beyond the field, a group of killers are advancing towards this house, and beyond that, sniper Lee Seong-jo (Seo Hyun-woo) is continuously firing bullets into the living room. Avoiding this barrage of bullets in the living room are the heroine Jeong Ji-an (played by Kim Hye-jun), Bae Jeong-min (played by Park Ji-bin), who was Ji-an’s classmate and helped her uncle, and So Min-hye (played by Geum Hae-na), who was said to be her uncle’s Chinese teacher.

However, the drama takes a break from the fierce battlefield and turns back time. It was the time before the uncle who caused this incident died, or even longer, when the uncle who had disappeared for a long time appeared at home after 7 years. At his uncle’s funeral, his uncle Jeong Jin-man (played by Lee Dong-wook) was told by village friends that he was a local gangster or a North Korean agent. However, as soon as he appeared, his grandmother suddenly passed away. And at his grandmother’s funeral, Jian’s father and mother also died. Jian also barely escaped the gunmen who invaded his house.

Instead of explaining this absurd situation, the tragedy that suddenly struck Jian’s family, the drama tells the story through the process of how two people, Jian and her uncle, who forgot to say anything due to shock, become real family.. Writer Kang Ji-young’s “Mrs. Shim is a Killer” is like that. Her husband, who worked as a butcher, died from a drunk driver and she lost everything she had overnight. His son goes to the military because he can’t afford tuition, and he has to somehow make a living with his daughter, who is in high school. At that time, a job advertisement appeared for ‘Goqui’ with a monthly salary of 300 and a bonus of 500%. We are looking for a ‘killer’

Just like the ingenious imagination of becoming a killer out of curiosity, an absurd but plausible story unfolds in which the uncle, who had been slapping himself in the face in front of Ji-an’s room when he was speechless, remained as Ji-an’s protector and opened a shopping mall selling weapons to killers to make a living. will be.

However, the uncle committed suicide, and before he had time to grieve, killers attacked. This is because Jian is in the same position as his uncle at the shopping mall that his uncle ran. They use weapons purchased from Jeong Jin-man and even use drones to destroy the house.

The first day my uncle and I came to this house, Jian fell, unable to bear her heavy burden. The uncle says as he looks at Jian. “Listen carefully, Jeong Ji-an, I am neither your mother nor your father.” When young Jian heard those words, he could not cry. I just got up again, picked up my luggage, and headed home. It was like that. My uncle always said something, saying, “Listen carefully, Jeong Ji-an.” Now, in a situation where murder drones are rampant, Ji-an remembers his uncle’s words to get through the situation. He flies like a flying squirrel and pulls up a sofa to cover himself. However, there is a ‘long gun’ hidden under the sofa. Like a bulletproof iron door that can withstand drone attacks.

<Killers’ Shopping Mall> creates the possibility of an absurd action plot by adding a poignant narrative of an uncle and nephew. Following <Strangers Are Hell>, <Bad and Crazy> <Tale of the Gumiho> Lee Dong-wook, who has put his own unique spin on genre works through

Just the atmosphere is horror?

▲ Seonsan

ⓒ Netflix

Now, on a road between long rice fields, a familiar cliché in our thrillers, an old man walks there holding a bottle of makgeolli. An old man who is heavily drunk, and harsh words keep coming out of his mouth. After a while, the old man foams at the mouth and collapses. It’s like looking at the old man from afar.

There is a term called ‘Yeonniverse’ This refers to the world of director Yeon Sang-ho’s work, which has a solid worldview, just like Marvel. Previously, <King of Pigs> Starting with <Pseudo>, <Train to Busan> Via <Seoul Station>, <Method> <Hell> It consists of works ranging from <Jeong-i>.

In his works, people fight for ‘interest’ and threaten each other until they collapse. It is no different in <Seonsan>. The old man who died and the people left behind have conflicting understandings about the ‘seonsan’ owned by the old man. Yoon Seo-ha (played by Kim Hyun-joo), a part-time lecturer who missed out on a full-time position despite ghostwriting the professor’s work, ignores him, saying he is a father he never met, but his expression changes when he hears that there is a “sensan.”But Yoon Seo-ha is not the only one drooling over that fate. Kim Young-ho (played by Ryu Kyung-soo), who appears at the funeral, claims the right to have a preborn child, saying that he is also a child of this family. The village head, who is devastated by the lack of development even after building a building, takes the lead in handling the deceased by presiding over the funeral as the village head.

The tangled human relationships are not limited to those surrounding Seonsan. Another major conflict that drives the narrative of <Seonsan> is between detective Choi Seong-jun (played by Park Hee-soon) and squad leader Park Sang-min (played by Park Byeong-eun), who were once inseparable seniors and juniors, but have now become uncomfortable even facing each other. Because of Choi Seong-jun’s son, Class President Park has to use a cane, and although he was a junior, he is now a class president, and his sense of inferiority and self-destruction causes the progress of each incident to go astray.

Against this backdrop of conflict created by interests and interests, the murder begins in earnest. One person per episode dies, and the mystery amplifies against the backdrop of Namil City. And in addition to that mystery, the irrational behavior of characters such as Kim Yeong-ho and others who seem to be possessed by a ritual that exudes director Yeon Sang-ho’s unique emotions, and the genre-specific music that promotes such emotions to the fullest, make those who watch the drama feel like ‘Seonsan It reminds me of the ‘curse’ that started from 39;

But unfortunately, it is questionable whether this drama met the expectations of the so-called ‘Yeonniverse’ The settings and atmosphere that have now become so common in genre films, and the clumsy incidents that are solved just by listening to the words of a local woman while trying to set the mood, make even the actors who gave serious performances feel embarrassed.