NoveLight ™
It felt as if the scent of blood was seeping out from the screen.
Cha Seo-ah looked at Seo Gwangil, who had collapsed, bleeding from his head.
Breathing heavily, she felt the pain in her waist.
"......."
Cha Seo-ah turned her gaze to the broken window.
It bore the mark of Seo Gwangil, who had snatched away Cha Seo-ah's hammer to break the window.
Apart from the faintly breathing Seo Gwangil, there was no one else.
Han Yehwa had escaped through the broken window while Seo Gwangil was holding Cha Seo-ah off.
"Hah."
Before Seo Gwangil could regain consciousness, Cha Seo-ah used the remaining duct tape to tie him up.
"Not enough."
She had used too much duct tape when binding Han Yehwa.
The scene then switched, showing Han Yehwa stumbling into a nearby convenience store.
She had been too injured from the glass to keep running.
"Oh dear, what on earth happened to you? Come inside quickly and let’s take care of those wounds first. I’ll call an ambulance."
The store owner, shocked at the sight of Han Yehwa, ushered her into the storage room.
While Han Yehwa caught her breath and dialed the police inside the storage room...
"Oh my, oh my, Seo-ah, what happened to you?"
A new customer entered the convenience store.
It was none other than the store clerk, Cha Seo-ah.
She had come to retrieve tools and duct tape to finish off Seo Gwangil.
At that moment, the store owner turned her gaze to Cha Seo-ah.
The audience instinctively thought, "No, it can't be."
And then...
The store owner, with a concerned expression, spoke to Cha Seo-ah.
"What on earth is going on today? This is already the second time."
At those words, Cha Seo-ah’s hand froze.
A collective gasp filled the theater.
The audience, momentarily forgetting they were in a crowded theater, let out an unconscious sigh.
What followed was exactly as everyone expected.
As soon as Cha Seo-ah received the tools, she killed the store owner.
However, what no one anticipated was Cha Seo-ah’s reaction afterward.
For the first time, an "understandable" emotion appeared on Cha Seo-ah’s face:
Pain.
Regret.
These emotions, which even Cha Seo-ah herself seemed not to fully comprehend, were clearly displayed on the screen.
It was frustrating.
Biting her lower lip, Cha Seo-ah’s expression was one that could not be easily identified as either crying or laughing.
"Wow."
This time, the audience nearly let out another sigh, but for a different reason.
Laughing while crying, Cha Seo-ah repeatedly touched her own face, as if unsure of her own emotions.
The frustration and desperation emanating from Cha Seo-ah...
For the first time, the audience felt a sense of empathy for the pain that Cha Seo-ah was experiencing.
In the final moments...
The face of the dead store owner and that of her parents overlapped like a haunting vision.
Unable to bear it any longer, Cha Seo-ah turned away.
She opened the door to the storage room where Han Yehwa was hiding, but just as she did, Han Yehwa struck Cha Seo-ah on the head with a soju bottle.
Detective Im Seungcheol ran.
He was chasing after Seo Gwangil, who had entered the scene first, and found him unconscious.
Sensing Im Seungcheol’s presence, the barely conscious Seo Gwangil could only utter one word.
"Escaped... she escaped. Ch-chasing her..."
Escape and chase.
At first, Im Seungcheol thought Seo Gwangil meant that Cha Seo-ah had escaped, but then he noticed Han Yehwa was missing.
Seo Gwangil had desperately tried to save Han Yehwa.
And Cha Seo-ah had gone after her.
Or perhaps she had gone to retrieve tools to kill Seo Gwangil.
Either way, it didn’t matter.
Im Seungcheol ran.
He had lost count of how many times he had run that day.
His breath was coming in gasps, and sweat was pouring off him like rain.
He searched the nearby area and eventually reached a convenience store.
It was a weekday afternoon.
The blinds were drawn, preventing anyone from seeing inside.
Im Seungcheol knew this store well; he often visited it.
He knew the store owner wouldn’t close the store without a good reason.
"You son of a bitch!!"
He kicked the door down and barged in, only to see Cha Seo-ah strangling Han Yehwa.
Han Yehwa lay on the floor, bleeding from the head, and Cha Seo-ah's head was also covered in blood.
Seeing this, Im Seungcheol charged forward and kicked Cha Seo-ah away.
With a loud crash, a store display toppled over.
As she fell, Cha Seo-ah grabbed a hammer that had dropped to the floor.
"Alright then, let’s do this."
"......."
Keeping an eye on Han Yehwa’s condition, Im Seungcheol slowly positioned himself to block Cha Seo-ah.
He pointed a taser gun at her.
Cha Seo-ah’s mouth twisted into what seemed like a smile,
an unsettling grin that didn’t look human.
As if frozen in place,
Cha Seo-ah suddenly lunged at Im Seungcheol.
"Ugh!!"
Im Seungcheol fired the taser, but Cha Seo-ah dodged it by hiding behind the fallen display.
She then rushed at him, swinging the hammer.
Im Seungcheol dodged and resisted by throwing objects that had fallen to the ground.
He kicked and punched Cha Seo-ah in the face, but...
Cha Seo-ah’s hammer struck Im Seungcheol’s side.
"Gah!"
A scream echoed through the theater as Im Seungcheol’s body crumpled.
Despite being battered and bruised, Cha Seo-ah attacked like a wild beast, seemingly oblivious to pain.
As she raised the hammer to deliver a finishing blow,
her knees suddenly buckled.
The impact of Han Yehwa striking her head with the soju bottle, combined with the injuries from Seo Gwangil and Han Yehwa, finally took its toll on Cha Seo-ah’s body.
A look of confusion crossed her face.
As the audience focused on the clear display of emotion on Cha Seo-ah’s face,
Im Seungcheol’s fist collided with her face.
Cha Seo-ah collapsed, unconscious, just as a crowd began gathering at the convenience store, drawn by the commotion.
The sound of police sirens grew louder.
As the screen gradually darkened, the audience finally allowed themselves to relax.
They let out a collective sigh of relief.
"Have you seen The Chaser?"
"Yes, I did. I almost swore out loud during the convenience store scene."
"Wow, me too. That scene was absolutely intense."
The small ripple had grown into a wave, spreading by word of mouth.
It started with advertisements, then the buzz from variety shows, and soon people were flocking to theaters.
"Look at my hands—they're sweating."
"Ju Seoyeon? Is that right? Wow, her acting was no joke."
"That scene where Cha Seo-ah laughed while crying? I nearly lost it when I saw that."
"Oh man, and she’s our age too."
"Who? Cha Seo-ah? Really?"
Perhaps it was because there hadn’t been any good movies lately,
but even though it was a thriller, people continued to pour into theaters.
Movie tickets sold out quickly, to the point where theaters had to add more showings.
With such buzz offline, it was only natural that online communities would also start to buzz.
==
[Post: Wow, The Chaser is definitely going to hit 10 million viewers????]
Isn’t this Ju Seoyeon’s first movie?
Is she going to be a 10 million actor right from the start???
Replies:
On the first day of release,
as soon as the audience numbers were announced, posts like these started popping up.
The community’s response was largely negative.
They dismissed it as just another thriller that people watched because there weren’t any other good movies out.
However...
On the third day after release: 1.2 million viewers.
As comments like these spread,
by the seventh day after release, following the weekend:
The Chaser: 5 million viewers.
The wave of success was turning into a tsunami.
As The Chaser’s success became undeniable, more articles started pouring out:
[Director Bae Jinhwan: "Thank you for 3 million viewers!!"]
[Love calls from all directions for The Chaser’s cast]
[Who’s the key to this success? ‘Cha Seo-ah’]
Among the flood of articles, there was one company feeling increasingly nervous.
That was Eclat Étoile, the company that had cast Seoyeon in a cosmetics ad.
"Excuse me, Director."
"What is it now?"
"Well, it’s about sales..."
"What, did they go up?"
"Not exactly, but they’re holding steady."
Director Baek Minchan sighed in relief at the news that sales hadn’t dropped.
Who would have thought she’d play a killer in a movie?
Although there hadn’t been a clause preventing such roles, he hadn’t expected her to take on such a part in a film.
"But her acting was spectacular. If you haven’t seen it, Team Leader Jung, you definitely should."
"Oh, of course, I watched it. It’s hard to believe it’s the same person."
"Make sure to watch Dream Future too."
"Well, I’ll think about that."
Team Leader Jung Taesu cleared his throat before continuing.
"It’s strange that sales are holding steady. I mean, it’s not a good image, right? Normally, sales would drop."
"But they didn’t drop?"
"No, they did drop."
"Then isn’t that what we expected?"
"No, but it was just a slight drop. So slight that it could be considered within the margin of error."
"Really? Seriously? Why is that?"
"I think it might be because... she’s pretty?"
"...It’s about time we find a new team leader, isn’t it?"
"No, seriously, there’s no other reason I can think of. Plus, it seems that Cha Seo-ah has surprisingly gained sympathy from female audiences."
Indeed, the cool, detached image Cha Seo-ah projected in the movie matched well with the aesthetic of Eclat Étoile’s ads, despite her being a killer.
And just as Team Leader Jung Taesu had speculated...
Two weeks after the release of The Chaser,
sales at Eclat Étoile began to rebound.
The Chaser’s box office rampage.
Eight million viewers in just two weeks.
With ten million almost guaranteed,
not everyone was smiling.
"Is this for real?"
"No way..."
"You said it would be successful. We even got investors."
A sharp voice rang out.
There was another movie that had been released alongside The Chaser.
Utopia.
It was funded by GH Group and released on the same day as The Chaser.
Its lead actress, Hwang Minhwa, was glaring at her co-star.
The same co-star who had recently joined her agency, Horizon Company.
It was through this actress that Hwang Minhwa had ended up participating in Utopia.
"It didn’t flop, at least."
"It’s at 2 million."
"..."
"Yeah, it might reach 4 million if we’re lucky. The growth rate is there."
But no one was talking about Utopia.
Online, offline—everywhere, people were only discussing The Chaser.
It was humiliating.
Especially because she had been utterly outdone by an actor from Nova Entertainment, the agency she had left behind.
‘Ju Seoyeon.’
Hwang Minhwa recalled the young actress she had briefly encountered.
She bit her lower lip.
The girl undeniably had presence.
Her talent was blindingly clear.
But still, Hwang Minhwa had considered her just a novice.
Grinding her teeth,
Hwang Minhwa vowed never to forget this.
As Hwang Minhwa made this resolution...
"Congratulations, Director Bae Jinhwan!"
"Oh, thank you."
"You’re about to become a ten-million-viewer director!"
"Not yet! Not yet!!"
Bae Jinhwan was grinning from ear to ear as he clinked glasses with his colleagues.
The ten-million mark was nearly in sight.
Today? Maybe tomorrow.
‘I’m finally going to be a ten-million-viewer director.’
He was about to attain that prestigious title,
becoming one of the youngest directors to do so.
"I really need to thank the actors who worked so hard."
"It’s a shame Seoyeon couldn’t join us for the celebration."
"Well, she’s still a high school student."
"At that age, with that kind of performance... wow, is she heading for Hollywood?"
"Absolutely. I, Bae Jinhwan, guarantee it!"
Clink!
As they toasted, the actor who had played Detective Im Seungcheol, Kim Daehun, spoke to Bae Jinhwan.
"Director, I think your phone is ringing?"
"My phone?"
Sure enough, the phone on the table was vibrating.
"Who on earth is calling at this hour..."
Setting his glass down, Bae Jinhwan glanced at the screen and his eyes widened.
He jumped to his feet and answered the call.
"Ah, yes, this is Director Bae Jinhwan. Oh, hello, Director! How have you been?"
It was the director of the Cultural Affairs Division at GH Group,
the person who had generously supported the production of The Chaser.
No matter how successful he was, Bae Jinhwan couldn’t afford to be careless with such an important call. The alcohol-induced buzz quickly faded.
And then...
"What? You want Seoyeon?"
This was an unexpected request.
Nice
Thx
Goods
tftc