South Korean film “Drive” drives along a rather predictable course without surprising me that much. While reminiscent of many other similar thriller films out there, the movie is frequently hampered by thin characterization and contrived plot, and I can only appreciate the considerable efforts from its lead actress, who did her best for carrying the film to the end.

Park Ju-hyun, who become more notable as appearing in three films including this movie during last year, plays Han Yoo-na, a young woman who has been a successful YouTube Influencer. The opening part shows how clumsy she was during her first several YouTube clips, but, once she gets to learn how to draw more viewers out there, her popularity gradually increased, and now she even has her personal producer to assist him.

However, things recently do not go that well for her. Besides competing against many other popular YouTube influencers out there, Yoo-na also has to deal with the boss of a big agency company who turns out to have a deplorable motive behind his back. Quite exhausted around the end of the day, she falls asleep in her car, but, to her shock and bafflement, she later finds herself trapped inside the trunk of her car.

A call soon comes from an old cellular phone near her, and whoever is on the other side of the line demands Yoo-na something almost impossible. The kidnapper wants no less than one billion won from her, and this figure is quite adamant even though she only has 350 million won for now. She must collect the rest of the ransom by any means necessary within one hour before the kidnapper will eliminate the car along with her, and, needless to say, the only option for her for that is the live streaming of her YouTube channel.

Of course, Yoo-na calls the police first, but it only becomes apparent to her that she cannot get much help from the police right now. As she reluctantly starts her YouTube live streaming, many viewers out there do not believe at all what is happening to her right now – until the kidnapper shows that this is indeed real and Yoo-na might end up getting killed.

Anyway, as the clock is ticking second by second, Yoo-na tries to find any possible way out for her, though her kidnapper seems to predict every desperate move of hers in advance. There is a brief amusing moment involved with one certain YouTube clip showing how to unlock a car trunk from the inside, and you may also find that helpful if you ever get yourself trapped inside your car trunk.

If the movie steadily sticks to its heroine’s increasingly perilous plight, the movie could be more tense and suspenseful, but, alas, the screenplay by director/writer Park Dong-hee, who incidentally made a feature film debut here, only becomes less focused as unnecessarily showing whatever is going outside the car trunk. There are a couple of competent action scenes, but, instead of providing more thrill and excitement, these only dissipate the claustrophobic tension surrounding its heroine while adding more plot contrivance to the film.

In addition, the movie also fails to delve into the ironic circumstance of its heroine, who comes to need others’ attention a lot more than before. Not so surprisingly, she turns out to have a fair share of deception and hypocrisy behind her back, and the kidnapper naturally corners in one way or another just for humiliating her in front of millions of viewers out there. Unfortunately, the expected melodrama generated from this extreme situation is rote and superficial, and we come to observe its rather unlikable heroine’s ongoing plight without much care or attention.

Furthermore, the movie also stumbles more than once in case of handling several substantial supporting characters in the story, most of whom could be a bit more convincing if they were off the screen. They are more or less than mere plot elements, and we come to sense more of the manipulative aspects of the plot when the movie shows a certain supporting figure too early in the story.  

 Anyway, Park’s lead performance holds the center as much as possible. Especially during the middle part of the film, she is convincing in her character’s growing panic and terror, it is a shame that the movie does not trust her talent enough. As far as I can observe from her good efforts, she could actually support the whole film alone by herself, and that would make the film much more interesting in my humble opinion. 

Around Park, several notable performers are only stuck in their thankless supporting parts with nothing much to do, and that is another disappointment for us. Kim Do-yoon, Kim Yeo-jin, Jun Suk-ho, and Ha Do-kwon are surely good performers, but there is no fun or surprise from their bland cardboard roles – especially if you remember the law of Economy of Characters.

Overall, “Drive” is not a total waste of time despite its several glaring flaws, and I enjoyed it to some degree. Nonetheless, I can instantly think of a number of better thriller films such as Rodrigo Cortés’s “Buried” (2010), which still chills me a lot whenever I think of its several terrifying moments. To be frank with you, you should check that little but effective thriller film instead, and you may thank me for that later.