The Vanished is a 2018 South Korean thriller about a female body who mysteriously disappears from the morgue, leaving her husband a ragtag investigation team who can barely function to solve the case.
South Korean films have been featured at the Fantasia Film Festival over the last few years with a lot of success. Covering all the genres from drama, action, thriller, and horror, you name it, great storytelling, stylistic cinematography and outstanding characters and performances have helped to sharing the country’s culture and unique society. The Vanished (Korean: 사라진 밤), the debut feature film for director Lee Chang-hee is a great addition to the lot, based on the Spanish film The Body. While the foundation of the idea of a missing corpse and the characterization within are similar to the original, Lee makes sure his story ends with his own influences and clever twist. Thrillers are no small feat and a lot of directors fail to put together a truly effective twist, yet Lee has chosen a challenging genre to tackle and in many ways, delivers effectively. While it’s set in a morgue, The Vanished is not a horror film, much more an atmospheric thriller.
Framing the movie over the course of a single night, with on-screen timestamps as reference, the story unfolds through colorful characters, who strike upon some signature humorous moments both in dialogue and reaction. In a movie like this, it helps to break the tension. At the same time, the timeline also flows smoothly into flashback moments, giving it depth as more secrets are revealed. What drives the story however is the disappearance of the corpse, which introduces the notion of catalepsy, or better known as the possibility of the dead coming back to life.
In the process, we meet husband Dr.Park (Kang-woo Kim) and detective Jung-sik (Sang-kyung Kim). Their stories are similar, their losses aligned, but as Jung-sik investigates the mystery with a prime suspect, a contrast between in their characters emerges, especially when, by no surprise, that this is a relationship of unbalanced control. What’s more, Jung-sik has a mistress. Like most thrillers, the secrets lead to more secrets and then twists and turns. The final act, while many might feel far-fetched, actually had plenty of clues embedded in the story if one were piecing them together.
Filled with an experienced and talented South Korean cast, The Vanished’s biggest accomplishment is its cinematography. Just like its characters and their emotions, it all about contrasts. The night pop with crisp focused lighting and a blue hues that beautifully accentuate the darkness. Lee plays with flickering lights and well-timed blackouts to create a genuinely suspenseful experience. In the flashbacks, we get more natural and warm colors, focusing on sunlight. One of the best shots in the movie is all about the choice of color when one of the characters falls into water with blues and reds moving us not just visually but emotionally.
Stylistic and populated with memorable great characters, The Vanished a rare immersive experience. While the thriller aspects are meant to be simple, there is certain charm to its end with twists that stay true to South Korean film’s tendency to focus on the exploration of deeper emotions.