Traffickers
2012; directed by Kim Hong-Seon

The subject of human organ trafficking is, of course, about as grisly and off-putting as you could get, and most online reviews would seem to agree that Traffickers is a dark movie. Well, except for this one. While this movie couldn't exactly be labeled as a comedy (even a black one) some of the lead characters are so buffoonish that what should be suspense turns into farce.

The movie centers around Lim, an organ trafficker that retires after a job goes horribly wrong. But after he meets a pretty young woman whose father needs an organ transplant, Lim steps into the game once more. The character of Lim himself is fine and dandy: he's tough, he's brooding -- if this was a 1980's movie, he would probably be chain-smoking filiterless cigarettes. It's just that his cohorts are such bumbling fools that it got hard to take much of this movie seriously. Are these supposed to be tough guys, or are they comic relief? Most of the characters work as neither.

Traffickers is fairly violent, but it actually feels like it could have gone a lot further in this regard. It's certainly nowhere near the level of Category III classics like Dr. Lamb and The Untold Story. If ever there was subject matter rife for showing buckets of blood, organ trafficking would certainly be it, but more jaded horror/gore fans will most likely be disappointed in the lack of more graphic cinematic eviscerations.

Still, despite its flaws, Traffickers does work for the most part. When the story focuses on Lim more, the movie becomes more effective as a result, with a creepy claustrophobic flavor attached, since most of the film takes place in the confines of a cruise ship. If the director had gone with that approach more -- a horror-tinged homage to Die Hard, as it were -- Traffickers may have been more successful in the end.

RATING: 6

Traffickers has been released on North American home video by Well GO USA uncut and in the original language. It is available from Amazon on Blu-ray and DVD. Bonus features on both versions consist of trailers for the film and several other Well Go releases.