By Ica Hontiveros-Cheng
Not to be mistaken for the Sex Comedy that shares the same title; ‘Target’ is a Korean cautionary crime thriller, which stars Shin Hye-sun. The film follows her character, Soo-hyeon who buys a second hand washer, only to fall victim to a scammer, hacker and killer. Yes, the antagonist is all three, which makes for an edge-of-your-seat, nerve-wrecking thriller. With the audiences trying to solve the case while anticipating jump scares, and shrieking at some pretty brutal scenes.
The film comes at an interesting time, as current events are littered with news of government agencies being hacked and our personal information becoming available to who knows what evil elements lurking in the dark web.
I mean, who among us hasn’t bought second hand items online? Whether it is through Facebook Marketplace, Carousell, or yes, even Shopee or Lazada. The thought of saving a few bucks by purchasing something second hand from a stranger might be too appealing that we actually forget the potential dangers that come with sharing such basic information as your phone number and address. Information that we may have been too casual and lenient with, since we have become dependent on e-commerce sites, delivery apps, and yes, even social media.
As a woman, I couldn’t help but feel for the protagonist, as if dealing with a scammer/hacker/killer/stalker isn’t enough, she also has to dodge a creepy boss and she also has to deal with the dangers of being a single woman living alone in the city. And there was a particular threat that was done to the lead actress in the film, that is just absolutely the stuff of nightmares.
There are a number of scams that are featured in the film, and its troubling how some of them are already happening everyday. How much of “regular scams” do we let pass by, until they become big ones, before eventually leading to murder?
I feel as though, the sound direction is intentional to have the volume raised, to almost ear splitting levels, this of course, causes much uneasiness with the violence (yes, there is violence) and of course, it also amps the tenseness in critical scenes.
It’s a no-brainer for fans of Korean crime-thrillers or crime-thrillers in general to see this. While scammers and hackers are nothing new, I guess, what has always been there are evil doers, who will go to great lengths and means to hurt their fellow human being. Whether it is by stealing resources, or even causing mental and physical harm. Evil has always been there, its just the ways and means to which the evil is inflicted that changes.