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The author of this article is the writer @胖到笑干饭不如看电影

Crime films have become the most eye-catching signature of Korean films due to their stories that break the scale and confront human nature.

After "Parasite" won the Cannes and Oscars four years ago, it ushered in the 2.0 era of Korean crime films. Various novel and bizarre suspense stories continue to stimulate the audience's adrenaline.

A low-budget new film that was recently released has once again become an unexpected dark horse with its tense, ups and downs, and multiple twists and turns crime suspense atmosphere.

This weekend, let’s take a look at “She’s Dead,” a film whose title tells you the core of the story.

Although the title refers to "her", the film opens from a man's perspective:

Zhengtai is a real estate agent who loves his work and works diligently, winning the trust of many clients. However, under his seemingly down-to-earth and reliable personality, Zhengtai hides his dark and twisted habits.

He likes to use the keys entrusted to him by his clients to enter other people's homes and spy on their lives. Zhengtai does not break into houses to steal, but every time he takes away the most inconspicuous small item in the house and keeps it in his secret "museum" to comfort his desire to pry into other people's private lives.

The new target of Chint's action is an internet celebrity named Sura, whose curiosity was sparked by a chance encounter at a convenience store. Sura on social media is not only beautiful and wealthy, but also caring and devoted to charity, which has earned her a large number of fans.

Over the past few months, Zhengtai has gradually expanded from online human flesh searches to offline tracking and stalking. He tried to decipher the combination lock on Sura's front door, but failed despite repeated attempts.

Just when Jung Tae was worried about this, So-ra took the initiative to come to him. She went to the real estate agency where Jung Tae worked and entrusted her house card to Jung Tae on the pretext of renting out the house.

Before Jung-tae could savor the joy of having his wish fulfilled, he was involved in a strange murder case:

When Jung-tae sneaked into Sul-ra's house again, he unexpectedly found Sul-ra dead in a pool of blood in the living room. Jung-tae fled in panic, but after calming down, he quickly returned with a client who was interested in renting the house to provide an alibi for himself.

However, when Jung-tae returned to Sul-ra's house again, he found that there was no sign of a murder and his owner Sul-ra had disappeared out of thin air.

In order to hide his secret and distance himself from the murder, Jung Tae did not call the police. But soon a mysterious insider surfaced and threatened Jung Tae secretly. As the police intervened, more and more evidence pointed to Jung Tae as the murderer...

In the settings of most crime films, voyeurism, an act that is despised by the public, is always seen as a prelude to serious crimes such as murder and sexual assault, and voyeurs are often portrayed as dangerous people with extremely distorted psychology.

"She's Dead" plays the opposite approach and re-examines the issue from the first-person perspective of a voyeur.

Zhengtai's behavior seemed harmless. In addition to his stamp-collecting style of entering the house to peek, he sometimes helped his master with housework. Apart from this, Zhengtai behaved very normally, even making this voyeurism seem like a reasonable hobby.

The film does not criticize Jung-tae's behavior superficially. In the first half, it even humorously stands from his perspective and whitewashes this behavior as an art.

It was not until Jung-tae was dragged into the vortex of "great evil" from which there was no escape because of his seemingly insignificant "little evil" that the story truly brought the satire and condemnation of voyeurism to a climax.

Voyeurism may be a beast lurking in the dark corners of everyone's heart. In Korean society, this beast wantonly violates the public's privacy. In 2020, the appalling "Nth Room" incident was exposed, and there were as many as 260,000 downstream buyers.

In this increasingly rampant criminal industry chain, voyeurism is only the most basic link. Countless sex transactions and sexual crimes have spawned from this, which not only involve violence, abuse, and imprisonment, but also extend their claws to minors.

The carnival of voyeurism is not always associated with sin. As Freud said, it is an impulse of the id, without distinction between good and evil. Modern society has taken advantage of this instinctive desire and created entertaining channels such as social media, live webcasts, and reality shows.

Another protagonist of the film, So-ra, is an internet celebrity who has gained a lot of attention because she seems to show her personal life without reservation, which caters to the public's desire to peek. So-ra is a control group of Jung-tae, the former showing and exposing her own life, while the latter digs into and peeks into the lives of others.

When Jung-tae tries to go through the screen and enter So-ra's living space to understand the real her, he gradually discovers that the perfect personality that So-ra has established on the Internet is full of holes and loopholes.

What Sura posted most on social media was about rescuing small animals. However, the truth behind her highly sought-after posts was that she injured and maimed many healthy stray cats and dogs in order to gain traffic and solicit donations.

After the content was released, Sura mercilessly killed these little lives that were no longer useful. As Jung Tae explored, these shows of animal abuse and killing were just the tip of the iceberg of Sura's true face.

Like the members of the "Nth Room" organization, So-ra is also a violent person who uses the difficult-to-distinguish online world to make profits for herself. The fight between Jung-tae and So-ra is a full-on reversal, where all the villains fight violence with violence.

The creative concept of daring to shoot and act once created a considerable market for Korean crime films at home and abroad. In recent years, the subdivision of this huge genre has become a new creative trend. Gangster films, revenge films, political thrillers... more mature sub-genres have supported the box office.

"She's Dead" is a social issue-themed crime film, and the highly acclaimed "The Crucible" can be said to be a pioneering work in this sub-genre.

As social contradictions in South Korea continue to intensify, these films that delve into social issues have attracted a wider audience. During their creation process, they have also incorporated classic crime film formulas such as richer suspense stories and plot twists, making the works more box office attractive.

Door Lock

"She's Dead" explores the issues of illegal intrusion and network security from the perspective of Jung Tae and Sora, which have also been the focus of Korean society in recent years. For example, movies such as "Lock", "Target" and "Even if I Lost My Phone" all involve very diverse discussions about illegal tracking and illegal intrusion.

National Death Penalty Vote

More recent works such as "Cyber ​​Force" and the Korean drama "National Death Penalty Vote" have shifted the focus to the potential dangers in the cyber world, prompting the audience to reflect on the moral and legal boundaries in cyberspace.

Although "She's Dead" puts an end to the judgment and punishment of all evil at the end of the film, the real solution to these complex social problems still requires more reflection and effort.

Note: Some of the pictures in this article are from Douban and the Internet. If there is any infringement, please contact us.