Just when you think you’ve seen it all with Korean thrillers, and there certainly isn’t a shortage of serial killer based thrillers coming out of Chungmuro these days, comes along the highly stylized, utterly unpredictable, and proudly overblown, “Rainbow Eyes.” The movie hits you like a shot of double espresso when you’re suffering from a sever case of cabin fever. Yes indeed, there’s plenty of angst and jitters produced in the movie’s run-up, which then leads to an absolutely off-the-wall finale that easily crosses into the realm of the absurd.

In “Rainbow Eyes” Kyeong-yoon (Kang-woo Kim) and Eun-ju (Min-sun Kim) investigate a grisly murder of an affluent entrepreneur. The victim was slashed over 20 times and there’s blood everywhere in his apartment. The killer was careful not to leave behind incriminating evidence, but nevertheless, a strand of the killer’s hair is found. The police are then able to determine that the killer is male and has AB bloodtype.

Shortly after the first grisly murder a second murder occurs. The victims seem to be unrelated but the modus operandi seems the same. When the police delve deeper into the victims’ background they discover that the two victims were stationed at the same military base many years ago. A month prior to their discharge they were transferred to another base along with a third man by the name Jay Bae. The police now believe Jay Bae could be the next victim or the killer. Their investigation has only just begun.

And that’s just the start to “Rainbow Eyes.”

Visuals like the rest of the film, are cranked up to an excessive degree. Perhaps made that way to create a secondary smoke screen for the movie’s shocking twists that are set to unfurl, you can’t help to note the various visual tricks shown onscreen. Some scenes like the roving camera work at the police station impressed, while the sped up over-saturated outdoor scenes were overbaked. The two scenes with the clock spinning backwards was a nice touch. Also, for the first time in many eons, there’s even a stylish nude scene found in a Korean film, this one involving Kang-woo Kim and Su-kyeong Lee.

When thinking about Korean performers that have stepped out of their usual choices of characters there has been lot of recent attention given to Tae-Hee Kim and Ye-Jin Son. Another name that should be thrown in that mix should be Min-sun Kim. She has made a complete 180 degree turn from the frail effeminate roles of the past. Kim impresses as a hard nose female cop in “Rainbow Eyes.” Main thespian Kang-woo Kim rebounds nicely from his lackluster performance in “Le Grand Chef” and breaths life into the pivotal character of Kyeong-yoon. There’s also veteran supporting actor Won-sang Park, giving the best performance that I have seen from him.

While the first 80% of “Rainbow Eyes” seemed to fire on all cylinders, when the curtain was finally raised to reveal all the secrets weaved into the film … well those answers were a few orders of magnitude too gimmicky for me. Totally unfathomable in real life, your own taste for outlandish twists will largely determine how well you respond to the finale. The movie also seemed to hinge on a twist popularized in a famed British movie from the 1990’s, but that was irrelevant to me. Thinking about the origins of influences hard enough will inevitably lead you down a slippery slope until conceivably you’re stuck at the basic question of the origins of the universe. So I won’t go there. With that said, even if you knew what movie I was referring too, you still wouldn’t guess the correct identity of the killer. It’s that crazy!

When it’s all said and done, it’s hard to deny that “Rainbow Eyes” is an exciting murder mystery / thriller, with layers that leaves you grappling for correct answers. A word to the wise about those shocking twists & surprises. You will likely never guess the correct answers because the answers are just so blatantly whacky. If that’s OK with you, than you’ll likely have a ball with “Rainbow Eyes.” I know I did.