Maybe I'm jaded, I'm sure I am but I just spent a good couple of hours looking for more information on this true story and came up with nothing apart from mentions of this movie and interviews with the main players.
The movie itself is well made and yes disturbing, even more so since it's true,.... but the implications of it being a true story are huge, and the evidence of anything about these huge implications are completely missing from the official record. A network of kidnappers running a sex slave ring on American soil with members of the American police force involved high up in the organisation. Those are some serious allegations. And a women escapes the clutch of these murdering kidnapping crime lords, and tells the story, that's got to put a price on her head and make her a target? And we'd expect to see some notes run before the credits filling us in on the details of this case, because it's based on a true story, but we get nothing, and there is nothing we can find, there is no movie website that fills us in on the rest of the story. Just the main character telling her story, unsubstantiated and alone. It may well be completely and devastatingly true but because of the way this film presents the information and the fact that they've used the 'based on a true story' tag, that brings a certain degree of responsibility, and it's possibly one of the main failings of this film. Nothing is substantiated outside of the people involved in this movie.
As a story it stands up OK, but as a true story, well the story remains half told. Can anyone find any more information on this case? Did nothing come of her allegations, did no one get caught? Is there any evidence to corroborate this story outside of Chong Kim's words? Surely for a story this big there should be a trail of arrests and investigations. All the online material links strictly to Chong Kim and interviews with her. None that I could find links to her case from a third party or the police. Suspension of disbelief? I don't know what to think.
The movie itself is well made and yes disturbing, even more so since it's true,.... but the implications of it being a true story are huge, and the evidence of anything about these huge implications are completely missing from the official record. A network of kidnappers running a sex slave ring on American soil with members of the American police force involved high up in the organisation. Those are some serious allegations. And a women escapes the clutch of these murdering kidnapping crime lords, and tells the story, that's got to put a price on her head and make her a target? And we'd expect to see some notes run before the credits filling us in on the details of this case, because it's based on a true story, but we get nothing, and there is nothing we can find, there is no movie website that fills us in on the rest of the story. Just the main character telling her story, unsubstantiated and alone. It may well be completely and devastatingly true but because of the way this film presents the information and the fact that they've used the 'based on a true story' tag, that brings a certain degree of responsibility, and it's possibly one of the main failings of this film. Nothing is substantiated outside of the people involved in this movie.
As a story it stands up OK, but as a true story, well the story remains half told. Can anyone find any more information on this case? Did nothing come of her allegations, did no one get caught? Is there any evidence to corroborate this story outside of Chong Kim's words? Surely for a story this big there should be a trail of arrests and investigations. All the online material links strictly to Chong Kim and interviews with her. None that I could find links to her case from a third party or the police. Suspension of disbelief? I don't know what to think.