"A Record of Sweet Murder"

So-yeon (played byKim Kkobbi) is a journalist who receives an out-of-nowhere phone call from her childhood friend, Sang-joon (played byYeon Je-wook). This would normally be unremarkable, except that Sang-joon has recently escaped from a mental institution and managed to amass a kill count in the high teens. So-yeon has trust enough in her old friend to believe that there's some sort of logical explanation behind his actions. And there is, it's just...well, how much sanity can you really expect from a serial killer who's just escaped from an asylum?

"A Record of Sweet Murder" is a mystery thriller. Sang-joon lays out the explanation for his actions almost as soon as he meets So-yeon, and while it certainly sounds bonkers, there's a few points of logic that are difficult to ignore. For one thing, how does an apparently mentally unbalanced man with no prior violent tendencies manage to subdue and kill so many people without being caught? Think about serial killers in the real world. How many of them are able to remain at large when their identity is publically known?

Yes this is a movie, a genre film with some pretty clear fantastical trappings, if Sang-joon's deranged ramblings are to be taken seriously. Be that as it may, as the movie progresses, it's pretty clear that this story mostly takes place in the real world. People get hurt, and they don't just shrug off difficult wounds like they were nothing. When the characters in "A Record of Sweet Murder" take a punishing hit, it's several minutes before they can get up again, if ever.

Part of this is just do the way the movie is filmed. Almost all of "A Record of Sweet Murder" is just a single, unbroken camera shot, as per Sang-joon's instructions. He believes, quite reasonably, that the surest way to prove his delusions aren't mere delusions is to have everything happen directly on film. Certainly, the extreme and bizarre coincidences he brings up explain how his killing spree has gone on uninterrupted are difficult to casually shrug off.

And when we finally do get an explanation as to the coincidences, and a definitive proof as to whether or not Sang-joon is nuts...well, things get weird, but the ending is remarkably appropriate considering all we've seen up until then. "A Record of Sweet Murder" ends up feeling less like a justification of its own story as it does an ominous implication of the real truth behind the prophetic visions often seen in truth and fiction. Certainly, it's a good thing the camera was left rolling or we would never have found that much out.

Until then, though, the movie's a pretty wild ride, with constant palpable tension regarding the essential question of what's going to happen next, or more specifically, what weird coincidental subtext is beyond the corner that could only be the providence of a truly twisted divine entity. In a single cut, this is the strange record of the well-meaning murderer, with weird details impressively crammed into a long shot that surely must have been a nightmare to film. My advice- pay attention to the facial expressions. There's hidden depths there as everywhere here that warrant a perplexed second look.

This review was written by William Schwartz as a part of HanCinema's PiFan (Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival) coverage.

"A Record of Sweet Murder" is directed byKoji Shiraishiand featuresYeon Je-wook,Kim Kkobbi,Tsukasa AoiandRyotaro Yonemura.