Fatal Intuition Explained

Fatal Intuition
Director:Yun Jun-hyeong
Producer:Yoon Il-joong
Starring:Joo Won
Yoo Hae-jin
Lee Yoo-young
Distributor:CGV Arthouse
Studio:Sang Sang Film
Country:South Korea
Language:Korean
Runtime:108 minutes
Gross:$7.03 million

Fatal Intuition (; lit. "It's Him") is a 2015 South Korean crime thriller film written and directed by Yun Jun-hyeong.[1] [2]

Plot

Jang-woo and Eun-ji are orphaned siblings living in a small seaside town. They are very close, having only each other to rely on after their parents died. Jang-woo is saving up to move to the city so that his younger sister Eun-ji will have better opportunities once she graduates from high school. But one day Eun-ji suddenly disappears, and she turns up dead three days later, her body bruised all over and dumped in a large bucket of water at their washhouse. No witnesses and evidence to the crime can be found. Jang-woo turns to shamanism, but during the ritual to send Eun-ji's spirit to heaven in peace, he notices a suspicious man and takes the latter's behavior as Eun-ji's hint from the afterlife to find her killer.

Si-eun has been ostracized by the townspeople for her mysterious psychic ability to foresee death. She received a premonition of the death of her only friend Eun-ji, but stayed silent. Now wracked with guilt, Si-eun approaches Jang-woo to help him with the clues in her vision. She saw fragmented images related to the murder, but not the face of the killer. The duo begins tracking down a number of other murder cases suspected to have been done by the same person. Then Si-eun sees premonitions of the next target, and Jang-woo goes to the location where she predicts the murder will take place to catch the perpetrator. There, he encounters Pharmacist Min, known as the kindest person in town. Jang-woo becomes absolutely certain that the pharmacist is the serial killer, but the police refuses to investigate Min due to his upstanding reputation. Obsessed with avenging his sister, Jang-woo decides to take matters into his own hands, while Si-eun has another vision of the next murder.

Cast

Box office

Fatal Intuition was released in theaters on October 28, 2015.[3] It opened on top of the South Korean box office, earning from 628,000 admissions on 681 screens over its first five days.[4] [5] [6] [7] [8] This represents the best opening weekend for CGV Arthouse, cinema chain CJ CGV's distribution subsidiary. On its second weekend, the film grossed, reaching in total.[9]

Real-life inspiration

The film is based on a true story of a female college student found dead in Busan in 1991, and her death was honored in a Cheondo ceremony. But when performing the final ritual that involves throwing rice into the sea using a bowl attached to a long piece of red fabric, the fabric stretched tight and suddenly snapped. Then the empty bowl floated back to the shore to stop in front of one young man. The father of the dead girl instinctively felt that he was the culprit, but there was no tangible evidence to prove he was.[10]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Won. Ho-jung. Herald Interview: Joo Won pursues endless change. The Korea Herald. 6 November 2015. 1 November 2015.
  2. Web site: Lee. Eun-seon. Fatal Intuition actor Joo doesn't know how to stop. Korea JoongAng Daily. 6 November 2015. 5 November 2015.
  3. Web site: Lim. Jeong-yeo. Fatal Intuition Joo Won says thank you. K-pop Herald. 2 November 2015. 28 October 2015.
  4. Web site: Thriller movies Fatal Intuition, The Phone biggest draws. K-pop Herald. 6 November 2015. 1 November 2015.
  5. Web site: Ma. Kevin. Fatal Intuition tops South Korea box office. Film Business Asia. 2 November 2015. 2 November 2015.
  6. Web site: Lim. Jeong-yeo. Fatal Intuition draws most people over weekend. K-pop Herald. 6 November 2015. 2 November 2015.
  7. Web site: Jin. Eun-soo. Experimental flick Fatal Intuition starts off strong. Korea JoongAng Daily. 6 November 2015. 3 November 2015.
  8. Web site: Conran. Pierce. FATAL Tops Slow Weekend. Korean Film Biz Zone. 6 November 2015. 4 November 2015.
  9. Web site: The Priests possesses South Korean cinemas. Kevin Ma. November 10, 2015. November 11, 2015. Film Business Asia.
  10. Web site: Jin. Eun-soo. Review: Fatal Intuition is both haunting and thrilling. Korea JoongAng Daily. 2 November 2015. 23 October 2015.