Extreme movies in this vein don't come along very often, even in the world of international cinema. So hearing this is basically a South Korean take on Luc Besson's Nikita I was wary of what to expect; it's all been done before and then some. Initial previews for the film also raised eyebrows as they seemed to have taken a lot of inspiration from the Russian short films from Biting Elbows and the subsequent feature length release Hardcore Henry. Do we really need any more dizzying first person knife fights? Fortunately this is not the sum of these parts, and it manages to escape being purely derivative to become something more exciting. Beyond a few narrative stumbles this is a great piece of shoot-em up revenge drama.
The opening salvo gives us a taste of what is to come, as we see through the eyes of an unknown assailant taking on a whole building full of thugs. There are about three levels of them to get through with knives, guns and panes of glass. Sook-hee (Kim Ok-bin) is not happy for reasons that are slowly revealed over time, though it's clearly a rage filled murder spree fuelled by heightened emotions. There are a lot of whip-pan moves and editing techniques throughout that mirror this introduction, but it knows where to pull back and let the viewer breathe. Camera moves shift from behind a character's eyes, to over their shoulder, as well as a lot of moments where the view point floats freely around them.
Beyond the technical wizardry the main drama comes after all the spraying blood, when she gets locked up only to fall into the hands of a shady government agency. Just like Nikita, Sook-hee becomes Chae Yeon-soo, a sleeper agent only ever a phone call away from the next mission. There are surgical procedures, acting lessons and combat training sessions. Some scenes of in-fighting between the recruits feel a bit like a soap opera, but they break up the clinical feeling of all the surveillance and training. They at least allow her to keep her child, but this is more underhanded than real sympathy. As things progress it becomes unclear if agency is really interested in giving her a normal life.
The most obvious sign of their two faced nature is the way they assign her a neighbour who is put in place to coerce her into a romance. She's literally being married to her job. It's pretty creepy to be honest, and the attempts at making this all seem like a love story are really out of place and one dimensional. The character drama is the weakest inclusion here, as Jung Hyun-soo (Sung Joon) hangs around like a pest paying for her take-out food and holding up buses for her. There's no actual chemistry between them and beyond being an effective lap-dog the guy is never a compelling character. I get that there's some tragedy in her lack of a normal life with her daughter, but it could have been done better.
Fortunately, death, loss and revenge take centre stage here. The narrative is a bit messy in places, often switching between the past and present to flesh out Sook-hee's backstory. However a lot of the editing choices as time shifts are very effective. There's a tangled web of deceit in her memory involving her father, her past lover, and a scheme involving a stolen diamond that people kill to get their hands on. Current events spark recollections of past traumas, and it often jumps back and forth to build a picture of what happened and how it's about to effect present decisions. It's all basic stuff including parental loss and childhood innocence being replaced by killer instincts, but it works where it needs to.
This is of course a story about assassins and crime bosses, and it certainly delivers all the sharp edges and frenetic momentum you could ever ask for. The usual fantasy rules apply where guns are only used in gun fights, and people only carry close quarters weapons when the scene demands it. The point of view shifting fights reappear in the second and third act action beats, including sequences with motorcycle riding swordsmen and a bus load of escaping henchmen. Some of the effects used to stitch together these set pieces is reminiscent of older 'single take' movies like Rope, but they also take inspiration from modern sources like the fight-in-a-car-chase scene from The Raid 2.
It's a manic action jigsaw puzzle as the camera swoops in and out of vehicles, through the middle of battling characters, and sometimes outside of the fight to capture the highway mayhem they cause. The mixture of old school techniques, real blood effects and newer visual effects is impressive to see coming together. My only concern is that all this effects driven martial arts mayhem will be rehashed elsewhere and wear out its welcome. This does it well, and there's really no need to do it again. It feels fresh and interesting now, but could be bled dry very quickly. Time will tell if the film makers here produce a follow up or if their style inspires others to do something similar. For now at least it's a kinetic, bloody action film - a dark but often absurd story of betrayal that any fans of extreme cinema and fast paced fight scenes can enjoy.
4/5
BONUS REVIEW
THE FOREIGNER (2017)
For whatever reason I always feel drawn to any modern outings for Jackie Chan, despite the fact that his Golden Harvest glory days are very much a thing of the past. Earlier this year we had the mixed bag adventure Kung Fu Yoga, and before that the similarly uneven Railroad Tigers. Both seemed to to aiming for that old school mixture of martial arts and comedy, but there's something off about it whether it's the bland pseudo Raiders of the Lost Ark type plot in the former, or the awkward mixture of war time grit and slapstick gags in the latter. This time around they've dropped the juvenile jokes and the mugging entirely, opting instead to do a straight forward thriller with director Martin Campbell at the helm.
My interest was piqued since he's made some solid action movies in the past, but the results are still pretty patchy. What we get is a dry, sombre and often bleak movie about new IRA bombings in London. Pierce Brosnan's Belfast political figurehead tries to investigate the source of the attack, while Chan who was at the centre of the tragedy sets out to force him into revealing the terrorists as he worked for them decades earlier. It's a really odd mixture of government in-fighting, political power struggles... and a Chinese guerilla warfare expert trying to get justice. You could have swapped him with Brosnan and done a relatively simple revenge story but instead there's this odd element about a guy who fought in Vietnam for the Americans. Someone who seems to be a restaurant chef until he starts making chemical explosives himself when he doesn't get what he wants.
There are some elements of conspiracy intrigue, and a few action beats are entertaining.... but it's all just so weird. Maybe it's just the casting, since really it's a fairly straightforward nuts and bolts thriller. But while it's never dull there are ultimately just some things that never quite feel appropriate. Jackie Chan threatening public sector offices by using makeshift incendiary devices is one of them. It's kind of entertaining, some times for the wrong reasons, and overall it's not dull whether you want to see Jackie kicking guys out of windows or Pierce doing a gravelly voice. But it would have been nice if the film makers could choose one of these elements and go with it instead of trying both.
3/5
