Fantastic Fest 2011: BLIND Review

"To me ... night and day are the same."

Three years after a fateful accident blinded her, Min Soo-ah (Kim Ha-neul) is still adjusting to life without sight. She has learned how to care for her personal needs, and she has a fold-up walking stick and guide dog to help her get around Seoul, South Korea, but she must give up her dream of pursuing a career in her chosen profession. To add to her misery, she still feels responsible for the death of her "brother," as she called the young friend with whom she shared 16 years in an orphanage. She loved him dearly, and has no other family or close friends.

On a particularly bad day, she's left waiting at a bus stop in a torrential rainstorm. It's late and she just wants to go home, but it will be hours before a cab is available. And then a car splashes to a stop and the driver invites her to hop aboard, so she gratefully climbs into the backseat, thinking it's a cab. During a strained conversation, the distracted driver collides with what sounds to her like a body. The driver insists it's only a dog, hurriedly places the body in the trunk, and is ready to drive onward, but Soo-ah thinks otherwise, and manages to escape the situation safely.

The police are not particularly interested in her report of a hit-and-run accident until the next day, when a woman in the area is reported missing under mysterious circumstances. Two other women had also been reported missing latey, so they're concerned it might be a pattern. When the police captain learns she is blind, however, he assigns Cho Hee-bong (as the English subtitles identify the character played by actor Jo Hie-bong AKA Cho Hee-bong) -- apparently the least competent detective in the force -- to take her testimony.

Soo-ah demonstrates to Hee-bong that, despite her visual impairment, she is fully capable of providing information that would be extremely helpful. Hee-bong begins a bumbling investigation. When notice of a reward is posted, Gi-sub (Yoo Seung-ho), a teen delivery driver, comes forward, but his eyewitness testimony directly conflicts with what Soo-ah has reported, and Hee-bong discounts it. Soon afterward, the mystery driver pursues Gi-sub, and the young man becomes reluctantly involved in the investigation.

Blind begins as a nicely-effective thriller, then downshifts into lighthearted comedy for a long stretch with the rubber-faced Hee-bong receiving a first-hand education in blindness from Soo-ah. Thereafter, it bounces between genres, developing and then quickly dissipating any suspense that accumulates. For humor, Wisey, the cute and cuddly guide dog, is useful as a running gag. (I think it was Garry Marshall who advised directors: "Always have a dog. Then you can cut to them if the scene's not funny enough.")

Eventually the movie settles back into thriller mode, featuring a garden-variety villain with super-duper strength, a police force that is insensitive and incompetent, and far too many contrivances to surprise anybody. Ahn Sang-hoon, who previously made Arang, occasionally douses the proceedings with visual panache, endeavoring to provide a visual representation of blindness from the point of view of the sightless Soo-ah, and the movie swooshes through to its conclusion is an audience-pleasing manner. Of particular note is a cleverly-staged, extended sequence set in a subway station, involving running, chasing, and video-phoning.

As Soo-ah, Kim Ha-neul generates a considerable amount of sympathy for her character, which tends to balance out the more derivative moments. Save for the subway sequence noted above, Blind may not be overwhelmingly original, but it delivers a very fair amount of entertainment value.