Helpless

Helpless is a 2012 psychological thriller released in South Korea based off the Japanese crime novel, All She Was Worth. Starring Kim Minhee, Lee Sunkyu, and Jo Sung-ha, the movie was a weekend box office hit after its release.

Plot

Veterinarian Jung Mun-ho is happily waiting to take the news of his engagement to his parents for a surprise visit. With his fiancée, Kang Seon-yeong, to be meeting her soon-to-be in-law's for the first time, both she and Mun-ho stop at a rest-stop before reaching their destination in Andong.

With a storm approaching, Mun-ho tells his beloved to stay in the car while he goes to get a refill on coffee and to overall freshen up. Gone not even ten minutes, Mun-ho returns to the car only to find the engine running, but Seon-yeong gone.

Tracing her steps to the nearby restrooms does he find her hairpin laying on the ground. Startled that something may have happened, Mun-ho returns to the city and visits the police department in hopes of reporting her sudden disappearance. Now to play the waiting game, Mun-ho's skin itches to find his fiancée, but no one seems to be taking him seriously.

After finding out from his banker friend that Seon-yeong filed for bankruptcy years ago and that—in fact—her real name is not Kang Seon-yeong, Mun-ho takes a moment to gather his shock. Slowly uncovering things about his fiancée's past that don't seem to add up, Mun-ho consults in his cousin who was a former police. Together, they start digging into the case of Mun-ho's runaway bride only to find out that she isn't who she claims to be.

Overall

I was initially interested in this movie because I noticed Kim Minhee on the cover. I've seen her once before in No Tears for the Dead and was pretty impressed with her acting skills. But Helpless was a total turn-around regarding her work. To give off that creepy, abnormal vibe just by adorning a look on her face or by saying things that a person simply wouldn't say was breathtaking. She definitely proved she has more than just a pretty face.

Being that psychological thriller's and crime stories pull at my heartstrings, I was very impressed with the makeup of this movie.

Mun-ho's character is an overall sweetheart naive in his nature. Having fallen for Seon-yeong upon seeing her playing with the puppies in a gated setting just outside his clinic, Mun-ho had no reason to suspect the woman as anything but a gorgeous, intellectual, and sweet individual that took his heart without even trying. Though the movie is primarily based off of flashbacks that elaborate more on Seon-yeong's past, we're given an insight on Mun-ho's true feelings. He loved her without thinking twice and accepted all of her flaws even after realizing who she was.

Orphaned and soon accepting that her biological parents consulted in loan sharks before their death, Seon-yeong becomes property of the underworld, or so that's what her first husband tells Mun-ho. And that's just the start of the roller coaster that envelopes Seon-yeong's life.

Though we're given bits and pieces of Seon-yeong's past, the movie doesn't really delve into the actually occurrence of pain and misery she went through, only snapshots of her slowly dwindling into insanity. Those blank expressions, seemingly cheerful or happy ways of addressing another person though unstable and weak was properly executed by Kim Minhee. Her acting was marvelous and I found myself having a lot of sympathy for her.

I think the overall image we were supposed to get of Seon-yeong resulted in sympathy from the audience. She was hands down nothing short of a psychopath who felt little emotion or love for Mun-ho though she was previously engaged to him. This façade she put up as an innocent and helpless woman made way for the more darker parts of her that Mun-ho refused to acknowledge. He remembers only the sweet and intelligent woman Seon-yeong came off to be, not this demented individual who was starting to rear its ugly head.

One of my most favorite scenes (probably because of the realism behind it) was when Seon-yeong originally stalked and murdered the woman whose identity she stole. After doing extensive research on who had no immediate family or close friends that would realize they were gone, Seon-yeong committed her first murder and found herself on the floors of this house trying to cope with her actions. The raw emotion, the reactions to bloodshed and gore—all of this just heightened her senses in becoming immune to future incidents.

In retrospect, I would have a serious problem with the ending if I couldn't find an alternative way to end it in my head, but I think having Seon-yeong driven to a point of madness where she simply wasn't human any longer and sort of making that call to kill herself was justified. She lived horribly and never had a sense of peace. She was haunted by the images of all those she hurt and manipulated and realized that living as someone else wasn't the answer, especially when your true identity will always be lingering in a shadow not too far away.

This psychological thriller has a few triggers I would like all of those who read this review to consider. There are mentions of rape and abuse in the first hour after Mun-ho starts searching for answers, but overall, it's a very interesting movie which has peeked my curiosity in finding All She Was Worth. Kim Minhee's character in No Tears for the Dead gave her no justice compared to her take on a psychotic creeper here in Helpless.

I hope I'm not the only one torn between my love and hate for Cha Gyeong-seon and her alter ego, Kang Seon-yeong.