The second of my Asian movie marathon day with my wife yesterday was a Korean action movie which I saw the trailer online and got me very intrigued. As I have mentioned sometime ago, I am actually not a Korean movie fan and I only started to see few Korean movies from 1 or 2 years ago. Even then, I tend to be very choosy in determining what movie that I want to see. At the moment, I am more interested in seeing action movie such as this one. So let's move on to the movie itself.
Brief Story Line
Kwon Yu (Ji Chang-wook - Smile Again, Healer TV series) was a former Taekwondo athlete who due to some reasons did not continue his career in sports and ended up as an unemployed person. He still lived with his single mother who worked as a nurse. As he had got nothing to do, Kwon Yu always played online video game most of the time. He was very good in it and was like the leader of a team that consisted of few other people.
After having a night of tiring game, Kwon Yu was awaken by the police who rushed to his house and captured him as the suspect of the murder and rape of an under-age student. Kwon Yu was rushed to the police station to be interrogated. His mother who definitely not believed Kwon Yu could do such a thing was pleading everyone about his innocence.
Kwon Yu was assisted by a public defender named Min Cheon-sang (Oh Jung-se - Running Man). However, he was not really able to give a proper defense either despite the request from Kwon Yu's mother to fight for justice. Due to so many incriminating evidence, Kwon Yu was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment. He was sent to a maximum security prison where he would be serving his sentence.
Things became very bleak for Kwon Yu as he would be bullied by a gang leader in prison named Ma Deok-Soo (Kim Sang-ho - The Happy Life). Kwon Yu was told by his mother that he should be strong and fight for his innocence as she would fight from outside. With the help from his friends from the online game world with various background such as Yeo-Wool (Shim Eun-kyung - Sunny, Miss Granny etc), Daoshi Yong (Kim Min-kyo), Demolition (Ahn Jae-hong) they all worked hand in hand to prove Kwon Yu's innocence.
So could they all find out why Kwon Yu was framed? Who actually did the framing and how was it done? Find them all in this interesting, exciting Korean action movie.
End of Brief Story Line
Well this is by far one of the coolest action movie that I have ever seen. The movie was done in quite a fast pace especially the story about Kwon Yu's frame. The mystery was unfolded through some investigation which oddly enough seemed realistically possible. The movie itself was filled with lots of action with cool fighting scenes by Kwon Yu and some crazy car chasing scenes.
Just like any other Korean movie, even in an action movie, there were still some touching dramatic scenes especially involving Kwon Yu and his mother. And I truly enjoyed the scenes involving Kwon Yu and his online gamer friends who were mostly very funny as they were very much different in real life compared to their portrayals in the gaming world. As the movie was partly mystery as well, the twist was actually quite surprising and I did not see that coming.
The special effects were pretty decent and the music was very nice. They all added the element of suspense during the suspenseful scenes and the sad scenes as well. I also liked the performance of Kim Sang-ho as the ruthless gang leader and I think Ji Chang-wook was very good playing in this movie. I would not be surprised if the movie becomes a hit and he would be given lead roles in future high budget action movies.
I think this movie has got it all. The drama, the tension, the mystery, the action, the funny moments are all there. Basically all type of things that would make you enjoy a movie was there. Even though the movie was around 2 hours duration, it really did not feel too long. It felt just right. I for one would definitely recommend this movie to be seen. And I know for a fact that my wife truly enjoyed this movie too.
So for all of you who are interested in seeing a Korean action movie complete with all the nice things above, you should definitely go and see this one. As for those who thought that Korean movies are only sad drama type, then you could certainly give a shot at this one. I am quite sure that you would be entertained by the movie and who knows, it may change your views of a Korean movie.
Happy watching!
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