If
you think journalists are interested in truth, you probably also still believe
lawyers are only interested in justice. Let Heo Moo-hyeok dispel any lingering
misconceptions you might have for the former. When he gets a life-and-death
serial killer story wrong, he just keeps digging a deeper hole for himself in
Roh Deok’s The Exclusive: Beat the Devil’s
Tattoo (trailer
here),
which screened during the 2016 Fantasia International Film Festival.
Heo
has just been pushed out from his hack journalist job at a low-rated television
network and pretty much blacklisted everywhere else in town. Drunk and despondent,
he plays his last card, following-up with the tipster who called in with a supposed
lead as to the whereabouts of a serial killer stalking Seoul. In the dark of
night, in his drunken stupor, the supposed lair looks frighteningly sinister.
By break of day, he is back in his network’s good graces, working on his
exclusive report. Unfortunately, when he returns to the scene, Heo realizes the
supposed chamber of horrors is actually an actor’s workshop.
Obviously,
his story is bogus, but it takes on a life of its own nonetheless. Every time
Heo attempts some damage control, it backfires spectacularly. On the plus side,
he career is on the upswing and he just might have an outside chance of
patching things up with his mega-preggers estranged wife Soo-jin. However, his
sudden notoriety also puts him squarely on the real serial killer’s radar.
For
the most part, Exclusive is an
insidiously clever one-darned-thing-after-another thriller, but it never has
the massive third act crescendo we expect (like Confession of Murder or Broken).
Still, it is bizarrely engrossing to watch the wildly problematic Heo make a
hash of everything.
It
will also leave viewers deeply disillusioned with respects to the state of
journalism, thanks to some wonderfully arch supporting turns. Kim Eui-sung (the
jerkheel businessman in Train to Busan)
was apparently born to play sleazebag supporting characters and he chews the
scenery with glee as the ethically challenged executive editor. However, the
commanding Lee Mi-sook almost makes tabloid journalism look respectable as the
network director. When she is on-screen, she takes the film to another level. Bae
Sung-woo is also as reliable as ever playing CYA-ing Squad Chief Oh. They help
a lot, given Cho Jung-seok’s clammy standoffishness as Heo.
