Five strangers, each with his own special talents, are recruited by the mysterious 'X'. They do not know why they are brought together, but nonetheless agree to a series of potentially lucrative schemes. A planned bank robbery goes awry when a minor mistake leads to a hostage situation. The robbery is orchestrated by Hwan. When Hwan turns up dead at the designated meeting spot, the remaining men realize something is seriously wrong, and suspicion flares.
Writing
Tight construction where every minor mistake cascades
Acting
Ju Jin-mo's simmering suspicion carries the paranoia
Direction
Kim Tae-kyung squeezes maximum tension from minimal budget
Director
Kim Tae-kyung
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This was director Kim Tae-kyung's sophomore feature after the horror film 'The Ghost'; he deliberately pivoted to crime thriller to avoid being typecast.
Released during the mid-2000s Korean crime boom that followed 'Oldboy,' 'Puzzle' struggled to distinguish itself despite sharing that era's cynical DNA about institutional corruption and masculine collapse.
KR
