Film and TV Picks: Rented In Finland, Paik’s Les Miserables, Heretic

Rented In Finland

Viu

What happens when four famous urbanites are tasked to live on a remote land devoid of city comforts?

In this 10-episode variety series, popular South Korean actors Lee Je-hoon (Escape, 2024), Lee Dong-hwi (Big Bet, 2023), Kwak Dong-yeon (Queen Of Tears, 2024) and Cha Eun-woo (Wonderful World, 2024) express interest in living with nature. They are sent to Lapland, located in the northernmost region of Finland, known for its stunning vast wilderness.

While the celebrities marvel at the picturesque landscape, they receive a rude awakening when they learn their remote Finnish country homestead has no Wi-Fi or mobile phone service in the area.

In addition, they need to trek for at least 20 minutes to the nearest source of fresh water. They also fish for food, chop firewood, cook over open flames and shower in the lake behind the house.

Expect a lot of fish-out-of-water moments from the popular quartet as they attempt to assimilate into a rural lifestyle in Lapland.

Paik’s Les Miserables

Viu

South Korea’s most recognised celebrity chef Paik Jong-won heads this reality series in which 20 “desperate” men compete for a chance to rebuild their lives and open a restaurant.

Over 100 days, participants will undergo gruelling missions and learn the fundamentals of cooking and how to run a business.

Inspired by Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables – in which protagonist Jean Valjean gets a second chance in life, thanks to Bishop Myriel’s silverware – Paik hopes to be a helping hand to the contenders who have experienced failures in their lives.

He enlists four chefs as mentors: Kim Min-sung, who specialises in Japanese cuisine, as well as Netflix reality cooking series Culinary Class Wars (2024) alumni Meat Master David Lee, Cooking Maniac Yoon Nam-no and Self-made Chef Lim Tae-hoon.

Each contestant has a dramatic backstory. Some were abandoned by parents or have deserted their families. Others are former convicts, gangsters, single fathers and a failed K-pop trainee. All are seeking redemption and that one shot to shed their “failure” labels and restart their lives.

Heretic (NC16)

110 minutes, now showing
★★★★☆

Hugh Grant weaponises his trademark charm to play a provocateur holding two young Mormon missionaries hostage in this new horror film.

Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) and Sister Paxton (Chloe East) call at the home of Mr Reed (Grant), who claims to be interested in their religion. Through increasingly tense conversations, he mocks their beliefs. These escalate in intensity until the women fear for their lives.

Writer-directors Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, who wrote A Quiet Place (2018), have earned a reputation for combining thrills with emotional depth.

Heretic takes place mainly in one house, albeit in different rooms. And, like A Quiet Place, it is a masterful blend of thriller and mystery elements with horror.

The suspenseful drive of the film comes from the vagueness surrounding creepy Mr Reed’s ultimate motive for trapping the women in his home. He is the predator in this cat-and-mouse game, but there is a uniquely gentle quality to his sadistic goading.

The contrast between his easy-going demeanour and increasingly menacing behaviour gives the scenes an arresting, off-kilter quality.

Much of the tension derives from what the audience knows about Grant, the actor. Over a long career, he has played a succession of charming but flawed men. Heretic asks viewers to imagine William Thacker from the romcom Notting Hill (1999) as a homicidal maniac. – John Lui