Rising star of the South Korean film scene Na Hong-jin returns with an ambitious follow up to The Chaser (MIFF 2009) that was a box office hit domestically.
In a lawless Chinese border town, where the boundaries of North Korea, China and Russia intersect, Gu-nam lives one day at a time. Faced with mounting mahjong gambling debts, he reluctantly accepts a proposal to assassinate a business man in South Korea. But when things don’t go as planned he finds he must flee for his life – with the cops, a rival hitman and an army of underworld thugs hot on his tail.
I liked the directors previous work “the Chaser” and “The Yellow Sea” continues to show the skills of Na Hong-jin . This is a well paced action film with the typically bleak South Korean results. Some of the violence and abilities of the main characters ventures a bit too much into comic book style. That is some of the escapes and action are almost super human.
The police could have been integrated more into the film apart from the few bumbling scenes they are in. While bumbling police is a staple of Korean action/crime films the film would have been better if the police seemed at least capable of capturing the main character.
Director: Na Hong-jin
Release: 2010
Filed under: film
