General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

The Chase (반드시 잡는다) (2017 film)

The Chase (반드시 잡는다; revised romanization Bandeusi Jabneunda) is a 2017 South Korean thriller directed by Kim Hong-sun, in which a retired detective and a neighborhood landlord pursue a serial killer whose murders resume in the same district thirty years after an unsolved case.¹^•² It was released in South Korea on November 29, 2017, runs 110 minutes, and was rated 15.¹

Key fact	Detail
Korean title / romanization	반드시 잡는다 / Bandeusi Jabneunda²
Director / writers	Kim Hong-sun; screenplay by Yoo Kap-yeol, Lee Chan-young, and Lee Young-jong²
Source	Adapted from the webtoon Aridong Last Cowboy, originally serialized in 2010 by the artist Jepigaru; the film credits the original work to Kim Tae-geon³^•⁴^•⁵
Lead cast	Baek Yoon-sik as Sim Deok-soo, Sung Dong-il as Park Pyung-dal, with Chun Ho-jin and Bae Jong-ok⁶
Release	November 29, 2017 (South Korea); 110 minutes; distributor Next Entertainment World¹^•²
Box office	446,780 admissions on 565 screens, gross $2,464,029 per KOFIC data; Box Office Mojo lists a worldwide gross of $3,067,956¹^•⁷
Recognition	Competition section, Udine Far East Film Festival 2018¹^•⁸^•¹⁸

Spoilers

Plot

The story is set in Aridong, a fictional neighborhood where a serial murder case took place thirty years earlier. Detective Park Pyung-dal (Sung Dong-il) failed to catch the killer at the time. When a new series of murders with the same method begins in the same neighborhood, the now-retired Pyung-dal asks Sim Deok-soo (Baek Yoon-sik), a property owner who knows the area intimately, to help him catch the killer.² In the film's opening situation, Deok-soo is a grumpy landlord of a small apartment who presses tenants for overdue rent; residents, especially the elderly, begin disappearing and are found dead, and neither the townspeople nor the police have a suspect.¹ The two men pursue the culprit with what Korean publicity material describes as seasoned instinct and intuition rather than forensic resources.⁶

Supporting roles include Na Jung-hyeok (Chun Ho-jin), Min Young-sook (Bae Jong-ok), Kim Ji-eun (Kim Hye-in), and Officer Lee (Cho Dal-hwan).⁶

Production and source material

The film is an adaptation of the webtoon Aridong Last Cowboy (아리동 라스트 카우보이), serialized in 2010 by Jepigaru, a web comic artist whose Steel Rain was also adapted into a feature film.³ The production credits list Kim Tae-geon for the original work, with a screenplay by Kim Min-sung, Lee Chan-young, Yoo Kap-lyeal, and Park Won-jin and adaptation credits including Kim Hong-sun.⁵ During development the film's working title was simply "Aridong" (아리동).⁹

Director Kim Hong-sun, whose previous film was Deranged (연가시), stated that his main aim was to sustain tension throughout the running time by refining every element of the production, from acting to camera placement and sound, rather than relying on stylistic flourishes.⁸^•⁶

Casting and action scenes

The film drew attention for its cast of veteran actors with no young leads: Baek Yoon-sik (70), Sung Dong-il (50), Chun Ho-jin (57), and Bae Jong-ok (53) at release, an average age of 57.5 among the four principal performers.¹⁰ Baek played Sim Deok-soo with a tone and dialect the actor had not shown before.⁶

The two leads performed the physical scenes themselves. Kim Hong-sun said Baek and Sung acted without stunt doubles and praised the result, and Sung described the action as emotion-driven fistfights rather than polished set pieces.¹¹ For a highlight fight in mud, the production reportedly flew in clean mud from Boryeong to reduce the risk of injury.¹²

Reception and box office

The film opened on 565 screens and recorded 446,780 admissions with a total gross of $2,464,029 according to the Korean Film Council database.¹ Box Office Mojo lists a worldwide gross of $3,067,956, a figure that differs from the KOFIC total; the two databases report different scopes.⁷ A 2018 industry report citing Korean Film Council data put the film's take at 446,200 admissions, consistent with the KOFIC figure.¹³

Korean critics were divided. Reviews credited the film with entertainment value and praised the veteran cast's performances, while others found the investigation structure conventional and the plotting loose.¹⁴^•¹⁵ A Korean Film Council retrospective placed the film in the socially conscious thriller tradition begun by Bong Joon Ho's Memories of Murder (2003) and noted it as one of a growing number of Korean films adapted from webtoons.³ The Far East Film Festival essay highlighted its premise of a serial-killer investigation carried out not by young detectives but by two old men who compensate for lost physical prowess with stubbornness.¹⁶

The film did not win any awards at the 54th Daejong Film Awards.⁸^•¹⁸ It was also selected in the competition section of the 2018 Udine Far East Film Festival in Italy.¹

Home video

An unrated cut running 122 minutes, about 12 minutes longer than the theatrical version, was released on Blu-ray in South Korea on November 22, 2018, rated for viewers 19 and older, with director and cast commentary and making-of footage.¹⁷

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026