When a new Korean movie was promoted in the tweets from 2 of the Indonesian cinema chains, I was very excited. Especially after I read the brief synopsis of the film which hinted as an action movie. Usually a Korean action movie would be filled with high octane action sequence mixed with dramatic moments, which was a recipe for an entertaining movie. Hence it was not difficult for me to convince my wife to see this. As it happened, the movie premiered on Friday but we already had other plans, and we decided to see this today in Cinemaxx while we were in Pluit area. Well we shall move on to the movie now.
Brief Story Line
Movie started with various news report about a presidential candidate who was dubbed as the most likely to be voted as the next president. The news were shown together with other news about a delivery man named Kim Gun-woo (Gang Dong-won - Secret Reunion, Vanishing Time: A Boy Who Returned etc) who saved a famous singer from a robbery and became an internet sensation & famous as the savior. While Gun-woo was doing his usual run of deliveries, the president candidate was assassinated not far from his location. He was informed by his old friend that he was being framed as the patsy for the assassination and he should not trust anyone.
Feeling confused, Gun-woo soon realized that the warning was true and he was immediately being chased by the people responsible for the assassination. He started to run for his life and was lucky to be aided by a mysterious man called Mr. Min (Kim Eui-sung - W, Train to Busan etc). In order to capture Gun-woo, the special task force was looking into his acquaintances. They targeted Gun-woo's friends from the band where they played music in high school, i.e Geum-chul who was now a computer repairer (Kim Sung-kyun - The Neighbor, Nameless Gangster: Rules of the Time etc), Dong-gyu (Kim Dae-myung - Misaeng, Blue Beard etc) who was a divorce lawyer and the girl Gun-woo loved, Sun-young (Han Hyo-joo - The Beauty Inside, W-Two Worlds TV series etc) who was a radio reporter.
With the chase from the task force, the police and also the persons responsible for the assassination, Gun-woo had to try all methods to escape. Could he save himself while trying to expose the conspiracy and made sure his friends would be safe? Find them all in this exciting action thriller movie.
End of Brief Story Line
Just as I predicted, the movie was pretty amazing from the start. The introduction to the main character was not taking too long but it was sufficient to make us see Gun-woo as a nice, gentle kind person who always try to help other people. So when he was being framed, we could not help but feeling very sorry for him (I know my wife rooted him so much). And after the incident, the movie was moving at very fast pace full of suspenseful chasing. But as we reached towards the second half of the movie, the pace slowed down a bit as it gave more screen time to Gun-woo's best friends from the band. This was the time where the movie felt a bit lighter, especially with the appearance of Kim Dae-myung as the fun divorce lawyer. Only during the final third, the movie began to pick up the pace with some touching dramatic moments (the one involving Gun-woo's father was exceptionally emotional) and ended with a quite well executed finale.
During the whole movie, I felt that it started off brightly and I was kind of hoping for a nonstop chasing sequences but it turned out that the movie was not full of those. The movie was putting emphasis on the conspiracy part which I could not help feel that it made the movie a bit too complicated. The friendship part was a nice touch here as it provided the morale dilemma our main character had to face and choose. It was definitely included in the movie to provide more dramatic moments (a common thing in Korean movies, even in action film) which was a real success, especially during the final moments where my wife was totally affected.
I pretty much enjoyed this movie as the chasing sequence were cool and the sound effects were good. I also loved the musical score. The songs played in here were nice and very well placed and some of the instrumental song was totally spot on especially during the emotional moment. I only found out later that Golden Slumbers was the title of 1 of the songs from The Beatles. When the movie finished, I was a bit confused as there was only song heard from the sound system but no end credit shown. When I checked the theater staff, he told us that it was just like that. Not sure if that's the case though, but what can I say? Btw, this was not a very very new movie as it was already playing in Korean theaters since mid February 2018 which oddly did not seem to be a major commercial success there.
Anyway, I personally feel the movie was a good action thriller movie, with a bit too much part on the conspiracy but having nice beautiful friendship moments. So if you are looking for such movie, then you would be satisfied. But if you are looking for a nonstop thrilling action movie, then it might be slightly not to your liking. The choice is yours.
Happy watching!
Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
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