Sound familiar? That's because it is. But "H" isn't nearly as good as the films that have paved the way before it. Ironically, the parts in which it deviates from the "Silence of the Lambs" formula are also where it's the weakest. Instead of making the Hannibal-like character a cold, calculating, and intelligent middle-aged man…they turn him into a young, baby-faced Korean kid who speaks in riddles and cryptic fortune cookie sayings. Not exactly an improvement. But that's just the beginning...

The cops in "H" get my vote for worst police department in all of South Korea. At one point, the main character, played by Ji Jin-hee, gets caught in traffic. Frustrated, he slaps his siren onto the hood of his car and drives into the opposing lane. A few seconds later, he has to swerve out of the way of two oncoming cars and crashes into a streetlamp, giving himself a concussion. Later, when he and his partner are tailing a suspect, they have the bright idea to *let the suspect know that they're following them*. His partner proceeds to drive like a maniac in order to catch up with this person, even willfully driving straight towards some people who are dining at an outdoor cafˇ. Basically, every cop acts like the prima donna that was Brad Pitt's character in "Seven", with no one to be the wise counterpoint of Morgan Freeman's character. It makes you wish that the generic "angry police chief" from so many American action movies were there just to take away their badges.

The best moment of the entire movie comes about twenty minutes in when Ji Jin-hee tails the copycat killer into a dance club. Since the killer can't stand lesbians, he becomes enraged when he sees a lesbian couple dancing together. So, what does he do? He grabs one of them and cuts her ear off, then slits her throat right in front of a slack-jawed Jin-hee. Cool, yeah, but that's one cool moment in a 106 minute-long sea of mediocrity.

The killer's motivation is explained late in the film and I'll admit that it's original, or at least something I'd never seen before. It's a convincing reason for someone to go insane, I suppose, but it's still not a convincing reason to watch this movie. From my experience, the South Korean films that try to ape a Hollywood formula are the worst. When South Korea forges its own path and tries to do something unique, that's when they succeed: "JSA", "Nowhere to Hide", "Oldboy", "Shiri", even "Resurrection of the Little Match Girl". Those are worth your time, unlike this movie.

In all fairness, "H" is a passable thriller if you absolutely have to sit through it once. But that's about all I'm willing to give it. And I'm not even going to get into what the "H" stands for either. It's explained at the very end of the movie but, needless to say, it's a third rate and unoriginal genre convention that's been overused in recent years. Hey, third rate and unoriginal…kinda like the whole movie.