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| ▲This photo, provided by J&C Media, shows "Limit." (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) |
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| ▲This photo, provided by J&C Media, shows "Limit." (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) |
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| ▲This photo, provided by J&C Media, shows "Limit." (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) |
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| ▲This photo, provided by J&C Media, shows "Limit." (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) |
SEOUL, August 10 (Yonhap) — Yeon-joo (Jin Seo-yeon) has a young daughter with her diplomat husband. Except for her daughter's health, she lives a decent life. One day, she called the police when her daughter did not come home until late at night. When she receives a call from a kidnapper asking for 300 million won in cash, she pases out in shock and is hospitalized.
A single mother So-eun (Lee Jung-hyun) is a police officer of Life Safety Division, but she does pyramid selling as a side job to earn more money for her son's academy. Seong-chan (Choi Deok-moon), the head of the investigation team in charge of the disappearance of Yeon-joo's daughter, instructs So-eun to negotiate with the kidnapper for Yeon-joo.
The case unveils as the kidnapper recognizes So-eun's voice. So-eun, whose son has also been kidnapped, begins to find the kidnapper by herself as a mother, not as a police officer. To get his son back, she even bears the misunderstanding that she is an accomplice.
The person who leads the criminal group is Hye-jin (Moon Jeong-hee). While her official job is a school nurse, she is a broker who kidnaps kids and collects money with Jun-yong (Park Myung-hoon) and Myeong-seon (Park Kyung-hye), who she shares room and food with.
“Limit” is a unique film in that it is an action thriller with three female actors as the protagonists. Based on the novel of the same name by Japanese author Hisashi Nozawa, this film has a relatively tight outline, including the relationship centered on three characters and a twisted plot. The fact that Yeon-joo's daughter has had an organ transplant and that her daughter and So-eun's son go to the same elementary school link the incident.
The film focuses on maternal love or family love: So-eun, who stands out as a mother rather than a police officer, and Hye-jin, the leader of a criminal group. It is a shame that characters' backgrounds were omitted due to the short running time.
How the story unfolds is not smooth compared to the relatively solid structure. While the criminal case of child abduction is the main story, some unnecessary course of events get in the way of focus. Although it’s not completely incomprehensible considering the mental states of Jun-yong and Myeong-seon, their action sequences do not fit into the context of the story, apart from their completeness.
Meanwhile, Moon Jeong-hee, who mainly played kind and nice characters, naturally played the villain, whose facial expression, tone, and voice differs by day and night. The individuality of the actors who played villains, Park Myung-hoon who put on make-up reminiscent of Javier Bardem and Park Kyung-hye who played an out-of-control villain, stood out.
The film focused on conveying a social message about missing children. Director Lee Seung-jun said, "The main character chases the kidnapper desperately with the only hope of finding her child,” adding, “I hope her desperateness gets well-delivered to the audiences.”
The movie will be in theaters on Aug. 31, playing time of 87 minutes. Audiences only 15 or over.
(This article is translated from Korean to English by Jiwon Woo.)
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