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The original screenplay from Kwak Jae-yong 郭在容 resembles the theme of another Korean movie "Lovers' Concerto / 向左愛•向右愛" (Dir: Lee Han/李翰, 2003) in that both address the swapped identity between a secret admirer and a stranger, which is kept undisclosed to the key female character (but revealed to the audience) until the denouement under unrestricted narrative. It goes further from the ordinary Korean cinema by (1) mixing an unrestricted narrative with a restricted narrative to plant hermeneutics (doings of the 2 male characters) and enhance readability and (2) emphasizing on the crossing paths among the key characters at the epilogue (a restricted element throughout the plots but retrospectively revealed).

The narrative is complex in that (1) it exploits expansion in temporal element (similar to "Hero" (Dir: Zhang Yimou, 2002)) by repeating the same plot under a different perspective from another character; (2) the repeated plots are flashbacks of the respective first plot and (3) it precipitates flashfoward to complicate the audience's line of decipherment. Yet, the diegesis is not persuasive as it optimizes the killer's mode of life, unpersuasively strengthens his intelligence in fine arts and thereby positivizes his character.

Director Andrew Lau creates a number of visual and narrative motifs for both male characters: the number motifs (4:15pm, 15th April) for Interpol officer Jeong Woo (Lee Sung-jae) and the soft visual motifs of the scenic painting and the daisy for assassin Park Yi (Jung Woo-sung).

Lau deliberately manages cinematography and editing to create virtuosic visuals: aerial crane shots, extreme long shots, freeze frame, split screen for synchronizing expressions of characters in a sequence and the use of a red-out near the epilogue. More characteristically, Lau's trademark shot of gun-pointing is once shown again. The substitute of Hye-young (Jun Ji-hyun)'s dialogues by her own voice-overs and the minimal use of facial make-up for her is a fresh trial of Lau. Lau is effective in creating a perpetuation of tension and a chain of sympathies and regrets in the heart of the audience down the line. The movie, though weak in diegesis in rhetorical terms, is a successful project that infuses Hong Kong elements of fast pacing, suspense, prolonged tension and narrative restriction into the ordinary Korean films typically characterized by slow pacing and simple plot structure.

註：本評論純屬影評作者個人意見，並不代表本網立場。
Note: This views presented in this review is solely the views of the critic who wrote it and do not represent the stance of our website.

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