Kwak’s magnificent thriller recreates a real-life Busan kidnapping case from 1978, and opens with a whirlwind montage of student protests, news clips and pop-culture imagery to evoke time under military government – and the police corruption that was rampant. Eun-joo, young daughter of a wealthy magnate, is kidnapped on her way home from school. At first, her desperate parents hear nothing; they request that the weary, seen-it-all cop Gil-yong (Kim Yun-seok) be assigned to the case and, to Gil-yong’s annoyance, also bring in the psychic Joong-san (Yoo Hae-jin) to help. The kidnapper finally does make contact, but several attempts to pay him a ransom hit brick walls. 33 days after Eun-joo’s disappearance, matters come to a head up north in Seoul, where Gil-yong finds his efforts sabotaged by rival sections of the force. Can Joong-san’s intuitions help? often has the feel of a drama-doc and is nothing like , but it uses a police investigation as a key to important truths about Korean society in much the way that Bong Joon Ho’s film did. Kwak Kyung-taek has always been at his best when digging into Busan histories, and this is likely his most resonant work yet. And the suspense is killing.

By Tony Rayns