Korean films are the go to when looking for grit, realism, blood without gore and gore without blood. Na Hong Jin turns the story of a cab driver turned contract killer into a tour de force of two characters that tear through a string of missteps, errors and double crossings like Iron Men, through the gauntlet of car crashes, knife fights, fire and all you can imagine in the vein of the Bourne dynasty, all to come out VERY harmed. That is the spirit of the movie: pain, collective suffering, bleeding, survival and grinding for a life perhaps not worth living; all of this framed in a decadent, sloppy area of China bordering Korea that is filled with deprivation and hardships, but in a way, beautifully shot.
The story, acting and locations are perhaps the strong points: at the other end, the action sequences get too convoluted, the characters take too long to get to their unavoidable outcomes and some scenes and plot points end up being redundant. It's a good movie, for it's Korean, and Korean films rarely miss..
The story, acting and locations are perhaps the strong points: at the other end, the action sequences get too convoluted, the characters take too long to get to their unavoidable outcomes and some scenes and plot points end up being redundant. It's a good movie, for it's Korean, and Korean films rarely miss..