What would you do if a stranger walks up to you to tell you that you were going to die in 6 hours? I hope you don’t do what the female lead does in this movie because warning bells were going off in my head throughout.
While crossing the road, a stranger tells Jung-yoon (played by Park Ju Hyun), “You will die in 6 hours.” Thinking Joon-woo (played by Jae Hyun) is a creepy weirdo (can you blame her?), she refuses to listen to his warning and leaves to meet her friend despite Joon-woo telling her that her friend was going to cancel on her anyway. When her friend really ends up cancelling on her, she starts worrying that Joon-woo may actually be right about her impending death and decides to spend the remaining six hours with him to at least catch her killer.
At first, when she was just having coffee with this stranger, I thought okay, at least this a public space and very well-lit but once the two of them decide to “hunt down” her future killer, I was wondering why in the world anyone would be so gullible to trust a stranger enough to go into dark alleys… How would you know if this person isn’t your future killer?! But I guess that would have been too obvious a plot? Unfortunately I’ve also seen too many mystery crime-thrillers (some with supernatural elements) and I guessed who the killer was a little too early on. I’m not sure if that’s just because of my exposure to this genre but that did kill the “plot twist” for me. But I won’t spoil it for the rest of you so you can enjoy trying to figure out who the killer is!
That said though, there was a good tension throughout the movie, the acting was great (Jae Hyun actually fit his role well although I laughed when the cast and director talked about how it was so obvious that he’s an idol because of the “cool” way that he walks), and the storytelling was smooth. The whole “who did it” plot was fun too (well until I guessed it too quickly) and there were other sub-plots that supported the main story and gave it depth. Overall it was an enjoyable watch!
This film was screened at BIFAN 2024.
Thank you to the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival for the opportunity to cover this year’s festival!
