Helpless (2012 film)
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Hangul | 화차 |
Hanja | 火車 |
Revised Romanization | Hwacha |
McCune–Reischauer | Hwach‘a |
Directed by | Byun Young-joo |
Written by | Byun Young-joo |
Based on | All She Was Worth by Miyabe Miyuki |
Produced by | Shin Hye-eun Oh Ki-min |
Starring | Kim Min-hee Lee Sun-kyun Jo Sung-ha |
Cinematography | Kim Dong-young |
Edited by | Park Gok-ji |
Music by | Kim Hong-jib |
Production company | |
Distributed by | CJ E&M |
Release date |
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Running time | 117 minutes |
Country | South Korea |
Language | Korean |
Box office | ₩18.5 billion (US$16.2 million)[1] |
Helpless (Korean: 화차; RR: Hwa-cha) is a 2012 South Korean psychological mystery/thriller written and directed by Byun Young-joo based on the bestselling novel All She Was Worth (火車) by Japanese writer Miyabe Miyuki.[2][3]
A man searches for his fiancée who vanished without a trace, only to discover dark, shocking truths about her.[4][5][6]
Plot[]
South Korea, 2009. A few days before their wedding, veterinarian Jang Mun-ho (Lee Sun-kyun) and his fiancee Kang Seon-yeong (Kim Min-hee) pull over for coffee at a motorway rest stop on the way to visiting his parents in Andong, southeast of Seoul. However, when Mun-ho returns to the car, Seon-yeong has disappeared and is not reachable on her mobile phone. All he can find is a hairpin in the rest stop's toilet. From the mess at her flat in Seoul, it looks as if there has been a break-in. Mystified, Mun-ho then learns from a banker friend, Dong-woo (Kim Min-jae), that Seon-yeong had earlier applied for a bank account but had been turned down when it was discovered she had a history of personal bankruptcy dating back to 2007. Investigating her debt history, Mun-ho finds she had been using someone else's name and identity. He persuades his cousin, Kim Jong-geun (Jo Sung-ha), a former police detective sacked for taking bribes, to help find her. Examining her flat, Jong-geun finds she left no fingerprints, had no friends and claimed her mother died two years ago. It then turns out that the woman (Cha Soo-yeon) whose identity she assumed two years ago had a debt history and has since vanished. Visiting Seon-yeong's hometown, Jong-geun hears rumors she killed her mother for her insurance money. Seon-yeong's real name is, in fact, Cha Gyeong-seon, and Jong-geun and Mun-ho realize she is now looking to take on another woman's identity. They think they know her possible target.[7]
Cast[]
- Kim Min-hee ... Kang Seon-yeong/Cha Gyeong-seon[8][9][10]
- Lee Sun-kyun ... Jang Mun-ho[11]
- Jo Sung-ha ... Kim Jong-geun
- Kim Byul ... Han-na
- Cha Soo-yeon ... the real Kang Seon-yeong
- Choi Deok-moon ... Police detective Ha Seong-shik
- Lee Hee-joon ... Noh Seung-ju, Gyeong-seon's ex-husband
- Kim Min-jae ... Lee Dong-woo
- Choi Il-hwa ... Mun-ho's father
- Bae Min-hee ... Client from veterinary clinic
- Im Ji-kyu ... Stalker
- Kim Soo-jin ... Jong-geun's wife
- Park Hae-joon ... Loan shark
Box office[]
Helpless debuted at No. 1 on the weekend box office, only three days after its premiere on March 8, attracting 607,463 moviegoers and grossing ₩4.7 million between March 9 and 11.[12] It topped the chart for two consecutive weeks, selling 561,666 tickets between March 16 and 18, according to KOBIS (Korean Box Office Information System).[13] It was the twelfth most-watched Korean film of 2012, with 2,436,400 tickets sold.[14][15]
Awards and nominations[]
2012 Baeksang Arts Awards
- Best Director - Byun Young-joo[16]
- Nomination - Best Film
- Nomination - Best Actress - Kim Min-hee
- Best Actress - Kim Min-hee
- Nomination - Best Film
- Nomination - Best Director - Byun Young-joo
- Nomination - Best Supporting Actor - Jo Sung-ha
- Nomination - Best Actress - Kim Min-hee
- Nomination - Best Supporting Actor - Jo Sung-ha
2012 Korean Culture and Entertainment Awards
- Excellence Award, Actor in a Film - Jo Sung-ha
2012 Women in Film Korea Awards
- Woman Filmmaker of the Year - Byun Young-joo[17][18]
References[]
- ^ "Helpless". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2012-10-30.
- ^ Lee, Claire (8 March 2012). "Director explores financial, social horrors". The Korea Herald. Retrieved 2012-11-18.
- ^ Kim, Kyu Hyun. "Helpless". Koreanfilm.org. Retrieved 2012-11-18.
- ^ "Helpless (2012)". The Chosun Ilbo. 9 March 2012. Retrieved 2012-11-18.
- ^ "Box Office". The Korea Herald. 23 March 2012. Retrieved 2012-11-18.
- ^ "Now Showing". The Korea Times. 8 March 2012. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 2012-11-18.
- ^ Elley, Derek (10 March 2012). "Helpless". Film Business Asia. Retrieved 2012-11-18.
- ^ Lee, In-kyung (29 January 2012). "Kim Min Hee Brings the Mystery for Train". enewsWorld. Archived from the original on 30 January 2013. Retrieved 2012-11-18.
- ^ "Kim Min-hee Anything But Helpless in New Movie Role". The Chosun Ilbo. 3 March 2012. Retrieved 2012-11-18.
- ^ Lee, Jin-ho (10 March 2012). "Interview: Kim Min Hee was Always Confident about Her Acting". enewsWorld. Archived from the original on 29 January 2013. Retrieved 2012-11-18.
- ^ Oh, Mi-jung (13 March 2012). "Lee Sun Gyun Didn't Really Want to be in Helpless at First". enewsWorld. Archived from the original on 28 January 2013. Retrieved 2012-11-18.
- ^ Suk, Monica (12 March 2012). "Thriller Helpless debuts at No. 1 on weekend box office". 10Asia. Retrieved 2012-11-18.
- ^ Suk, Monica (19 March 2012). "Helpless leads box office for second consecutive week". 10Asia. Retrieved 2012-11-18.
- ^ Hong, Lucia (9 April 2012). "Korean movies notch up higher number in 1Q ticket sales". 10Asia. Retrieved 2012-11-18.
- ^ Oh, Mi-jung (4 May 2012). "The Helpless to be Released in Six Different Cities in the North America". enewsWorld. Retrieved 2012-11-18.
- ^ Kwon, Mee-yoo (27 April 2012). "Kim Soo-hyun wins Paeksang awards". The Korea Times. Archived from the original on 17 May 2014. Retrieved 2012-12-05.
- ^ "Byun Young-joo Picked as Director of the Year by Female Film Critics". The Chosun Ilbo. 5 December 2012. Retrieved 2012-12-05.
- ^ Kim, Hyun-min (6 December 2012). "BYUN Young-joo Selected as the Woman Filmmaker of 2012". Korean Film Council. Retrieved 2012-12-15.
External links[]
- Official website (in Korean)
- Helpless at IMDb
- Helpless at the Korean Movie Database
- Helpless at HanCinema
- 2012 films
- Korean-language films
- 2010s mystery thriller films
- South Korean films
- South Korean mystery thriller films
- Films set in Seoul
- Films shot in Seoul
- Films about identity theft
- Films based on Japanese novels
- Films based on mystery novels
- Films based on television series
- CJ Entertainment films