Blind (Korean Film)

Original Title: 블라인드
Release date: August 11, 2011
Director: Ahn Sang-Hoon
Screenplay by: Choi Min-Suk
Cast: Kim Ha-Neul, Yoo Seung-Ho, Jo Hie-Bong, Yang Young-Jo, Dolly (the dog)

You know why Korean films tend to be quite awesome? It’s because they mix a lot of genres that shouldn’t necessarily mix together and manage to make them work.

Blind is about an orphaned young woman, Min Soo-Ah (Kim), who loses her sight after an accident where her step-brother from the orphanage, Dong-Hyun (Park Bo-Gum), loses his life. Three years after the incident, Soo-Ah is living an almost normal life as a visually-impaired woman alongside her guide dog Seul-Gi (Dolly), and trying to get back into the police academy.

One day, when she’s getting back home without her guide dog or anyone else able to see, she’s picked up by a mysterious car whose driver (Yang) is involved is kidnapping, assaulting and killing many women.

When the driver is about to dope her, he ends up running over a person and pretends to have hit a dog instead, but Soo-Ah’s keen sense can’t be fooled. When she gets to the police station, she believes she’s been a witness of a hit-and-run accident, instead of almost being the latest victim of a serial offender.

I gotta admit here that I didn’t know what to expect from a film called Blind, so when Soo-Ah has the accident in a very melodramatic (almost exasperating) way, I was prepping myself for a tearjerker. However, color me surprised when I get to watch a melodramatic horror thriller instead. Soo-Ah struggles with her blindness and the guilt over her step-brother’s death, which would be enough melodrama to turn people off — but this works.

The dramatic scenes helped build up Soo-Ah as a character, as well as her relationship with possible crime witness Gi-Sub (Yoo), who might be a punk just like her brother was. In contrast, her relationship with budding detective Cho (Jo) adds quite a bit of laughs to dissipate all the tension build-up.

And while the sick culprit is a huge element in our worrying for Soo-Ah, who can’t even see him watching her, I really think all the character build up make this ride worth it. Look, I care VERY little about animals, but other than Free Willy — or, okay, The Fox and The Hound… but Disney animals are another business — I’ve never been emotionally affected by them on film. I just can’t believe how affected I was with Seul-Gi the guide dog. Seriously, Dolly needs to get a freaking award for that performance.

The acting is all solid — as you can see, even the dog’s acting is outstanding — and the look of the film has some really nice photography. The visuals used to enhance Soo-Ah’s blindness were interesting, though it did remind me of Daredevil a little bit. However, that comparisson might be unfounded, as the only similarity between the two is that it has blind people.

Overall, Blind is a solid piece of entertainment — maybe not life altering, but completely engaging and worth the watch for those tired of thrillers that just thrill or horror films that just spook you.

Rating: ★★★½☆ 

amy

YAM Magazine editor, photographer, blogger, translator and part-time web designer. Film junkie, music junkie… and lately series (a.k.a. TV) junkie.

7 Responses

  1. ghost says:

    HAHAHAHA. I can’t believed you almost cried with the dog.

    • amy says:

      @ghost, I did NOT cry. I was just merely taken aback, and said to myself “OMG, I think I could cry” but I didn’t actually do it. Just saying.

  2. Rodrigo says:

    Blind was pretty good to watch. Anyways, that dog was far better than the ones from The Artist and Beginners. Also, I read somewhere that the lead actress went against type for this film because she’s mostly known for doing rom-com films.

    • amy says:

      @Rodrigo, you saw it? The dog was amazing, wasn’t it? Even in people’s deaths, it’s quite difficult to pull through what they did with him. I’ve only seen Kim in Dead Friend, so to me she’s not really playing against type. I think a few actresses in South Korea switch back and forth between romance and K-horror and drama. And some very good actresses focus solely on high tension drama.

  1. November 24, 2014

    […] performance I’ve ever seen in my life. Alongside Dolly (the dog performance in Korean film Blind), it might be one of my favorite animal performances on […]

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