SOUTH KOREA
2011/digital cinema/140mins — AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE
FRIDAY 4 NOVEMBER 8.30 PM – Buy!
SUNDAY 6 NOVEMBER 6.15 PM – Buy!
With one man caught in the middle of a gang war, this explosive thriller had the Cannes audience spontaneously applauding the amazing chase sequences.
With a pile of gambling debts, China-based Korean taxi driver Gu-nam reluctantly agrees to cross the Yellow Sea and kill a businessman as repayment. While back in Seoul he hopes to be reunited with his wife who he hasn’t seen for months. But when he arrives, he realises that he’s involved in a much more dangerous operation than he first thought, caught between ruthless opposing gangs, both out to kill him. Rising star director Hong-jin Na (THE CHASER) shows he’s the master of the set piece, with some heart-pounding chase sequences, and Jung-Woo Ha plays the man on the run with endless energy and passion.
Screenings at Cannes, Los Angeles, Seattle and Melbourne International Film Festivals
“An epic, pulse-pounding thriller” Kevin Jagernauth, IndieWire
“Na directs like a pole dancer – balancing difficult technical manoeuvres with a racy mixture of grace and sleaze.” Maggie Lee, The Hollywood Reporter
Writer/Director Hong-jin Na Cast Yun-seok Kim, Jung-woo Ha, Seong-Ha Cho Print Source Monster Pictures
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Asian films have featuring fight sequences that tend to go over the top, at least compared to Western films. This one continued that style. Perhaps it’s a cultural thing. If you dislike violence this is not the movie for you. I rated it 3.
I couldn’t help thinking this film was a cross between any of the Die Hard movies featuring Bruce Willis and the any of the old Keystone Kops films. Bumbling incompetent policemen. The main character in this film is a lot tougher than Willis. Perhaps he just took more of beating. It’s not that the Die Hard series had any realism, but in this flick it’s a bit much to expect someone to jump from an upper floor of a building onto the roof of a parked car, in an escape attempt from police, and then immediately take off running down the street chased by police on foot and in police cars and still escape. This guy had nine lives that were being used up at the rate of about one per minute.
There was a car chase in the film. You can almost depend upon it in film like this. It’s not very well done. They should have cut that bit. The director seemed to like having the camera wobbled about during the sequence to suggest excitement or fast paced action. It didn’t work. There were other chase sequences, often on foot; one man against impossible odds. On all occasions one way or the other he beat the odds and escaped his pursuers.
I found the early sequences well done. It was interesting to view the street scenes and general city life. The scenes looked like actual city streets and houses rather than constructed sets. I could also follow the storyline quite well until about half way through. On the second half I just had to go with the flow as different people are chasing the main character, attacking him, fighting with each other, getting injured, being tortured, getting up, being attacked again, escaping, etc, etc.