Helpless (2012 film)

Helpless (Korean: 화차; RR: Hwa-cha) is a 2012 South Korean psychological mystery/thriller written and directed by Byun Young-joo based on the bestselling novel All She Was Worth (火車) by Japanese writer Miyabe Miyuki.[2][3]

Helpless
Hangul
Hanja
Revised RomanizationHwacha
McCune–ReischauerHwach‘a
Directed byByun Young-joo
Written byByun Young-joo
Based onAll She Was Worth
by Miyabe Miyuki
Produced byShin Hye-eun
Oh Ki-min
StarringKim Min-hee
Lee Sun-kyun
Jo Sung-ha
CinematographyKim Dong-young
Edited byPark Gok-ji
Music byKim Hong-jib
Production
company
Filament Pictures
Distributed byCJ E&M
Release date
  • March 8, 2012 (2012-03-08)
Running time
117 minutes
CountrySouth Korea
LanguageKorean
Box office₩18.5 billion
(US$16.2 million)[1]

A man searches for his fiancée who vanished without a trace, only to discover dark, shocking truths about her.[4][5][6]

Plot

South Korea, 2009. A few days before their wedding, veterinarian Jang Mun-ho (Lee Sun-kyun) and his fiancee Kang Seon-yeong (Kim Min-hee) pull over for coffee at a motorway rest stop on the way to visiting his parents in Andong, southeast of Seoul. However, when Mun-ho returns to the car, Seon-yeong has disappeared and is not reachable on her mobile phone. All he can find is a hairpin in the rest stop's toilet. From the mess at her flat in Seoul, it looks as if there has been a break-in. Mystified, Mun-ho then learns from a banker friend, Dong-woo (Kim Min-jae), that Seon-yeong had earlier applied for a bank account but had been turned down when it was discovered she had a history of personal bankruptcy dating back to 2007. Investigating her debt history, Mun-ho finds she had been using someone else's name and identity. He persuades his cousin, Kim Jong-geun (Jo Sung-ha), a former police detective sacked for taking bribes, to help find her. Examining her flat, Jong-geun finds she left no fingerprints, had no friends and claimed her mother died two years ago. It then turns out that the woman (Cha Soo-yeon) whose identity she assumed two years ago had a debt history and has since vanished. Visiting Seon-yeong's hometown, Jong-geun hears rumors she killed her mother for her insurance money. Seon-yeong's real name is, in fact, Cha Gyeong-seon, and Jong-geun and Mun-ho realize she is now looking to take on another woman's identity. They think they know her possible target.[7]

Cast

Box office

Helpless debuted at No. 1 on the weekend box office, only three days after its premiere on March 8, attracting 607,463 moviegoers and grossing ₩4.7 million between March 9 and 11.[12] It topped the chart for two consecutive weeks, selling 561,666 tickets between March 16 and 18, according to KOBIS (Korean Box Office Information System).[13] It was the twelfth most-watched Korean film of 2012, with 2,436,400 tickets sold.[14][15]

Awards and nominations

2012 Baeksang Arts Awards

2012 Buil Film Awards

2012 Blue Dragon Film Awards

2012 Korean Culture and Entertainment Awards

2012 Women in Film Korea Awards

References
  1. "Helpless". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2012-10-30.
  2. Lee, Claire (8 March 2012). "Director explores financial, social horrors". The Korea Herald. Retrieved 2012-11-18.
  3. Kim, Kyu Hyun. "Helpless". Koreanfilm.org. Retrieved 2012-11-18.
  4. "Helpless (2012)". The Chosun Ilbo. 9 March 2012. Retrieved 2012-11-18.
  5. "Box Office". The Korea Herald. 23 March 2012. Retrieved 2012-11-18.
  6. "Now Showing". The Korea Times. 8 March 2012. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 2012-11-18.
  7. Elley, Derek (10 March 2012). "Helpless". Film Business Asia. Retrieved 2012-11-18.
  8. Lee, In-kyung (29 January 2012). "Kim Min Hee Brings the Mystery for Train". enewsWorld. Archived from the original on 30 January 2013. Retrieved 2012-11-18.
  9. "Kim Min-hee Anything But Helpless in New Movie Role". The Chosun Ilbo. 3 March 2012. Retrieved 2012-11-18.
  10. Lee, Jin-ho (10 March 2012). "Interview: Kim Min Hee was Always Confident about Her Acting". enewsWorld. Archived from the original on 29 January 2013. Retrieved 2012-11-18.
  11. Oh, Mi-jung (13 March 2012). "Lee Sun Gyun Didn't Really Want to be in Helpless at First". enewsWorld. Archived from the original on 28 January 2013. Retrieved 2012-11-18.
  12. Suk, Monica (12 March 2012). "Thriller Helpless debuts at No. 1 on weekend box office". 10Asia. Retrieved 2012-11-18.
  13. Suk, Monica (19 March 2012). "Helpless leads box office for second consecutive week". 10Asia. Retrieved 2012-11-18.
  14. Hong, Lucia (9 April 2012). "Korean movies notch up higher number in 1Q ticket sales". 10Asia. Retrieved 2012-11-18.
  15. Oh, Mi-jung (4 May 2012). "The Helpless to be Released in Six Different Cities in the North America". enewsWorld. Retrieved 2012-11-18.
  16. Kwon, Mee-yoo (27 April 2012). "Kim Soo-hyun wins Paeksang awards". The Korea Times. Archived from the original on 17 May 2014. Retrieved 2012-12-05.
  17. "Byun Young-joo Picked as Director of the Year by Female Film Critics". The Chosun Ilbo. 5 December 2012. Retrieved 2012-12-05.
  18. Kim, Hyun-min (6 December 2012). "BYUN Young-joo Selected as the Woman Filmmaker of 2012". Korean Film Council. Retrieved 2012-12-15.
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