I have seen quite a few Korean films, and overall the production quality is normally quite good, this film was no different, however there were some elements in the plot which were slightly bothersome.

Bestseller, directed by Lee Jeong-ho, is a film which in a slightly ironic way is unintentionally hypocritical of itself. The film begins with an interview with a successful writer Hee-soo. During the interview, the interviewer is interrupted when he is informed that her work has been plagiarized. Due to this fact, she goes into hiding for some time to get back her creative edge. She stays at a remote house on a lake with her young daughter, who reports that she often sees a ‘friend’ who tells her about a story of a ‘bad man’ who was in the house.

The writer begins having some kind of psychic impressions which are reminiscent of those which the female lead character in the film What Lies Beneath experiences. What is strange is that the film has so much to do with a plagiarized work, yet the plot is so similar to that of the film What Lies Beneath that I could predict what was coming. Let’s just say that the mysteries which are probably supposed to be shocking are twists which have been done to death in other films.

The plot is reminiscent of both What Lies Beneath and The Others in ways which if I elaborated further would completely spoil the film, moreover the ways in which it is similar to the aforementioned films is also a reason why it is unintentionally hypocritical of itself (because the film deals with plagiarism to a large degree). Although I would stop short of calling this film plagiarized, it is very similar to many films which have come before it.

What’s more is that certain scenes seemed identical to those found in other Korean films. In one scene where the main character is chasing a crazy old woman who has some kind of important information about what is happening a ‘done to death’ film sequence occurs. The woman reveals something important and is immediately struck by a bus and killed. In the film Mystery of Murder nearly an identical scene plays out with the key witness who just so happens to be a mentally challenged man in his 20s, although he is killed by a train instead of a bus.

Overall this film was worth watching, however it is not a very original film.