As the second of our movie marathon day, we opted to see this Korean film that was released in Korea itself in September 2018. So it was considered still quite fresh. In fact it was shown during a Korean Indonesian Film Festival last week. I noted from the brief synopsis, it seemed like an interesting movie. OK, will move on to the movie now.
Brief Story Line
Ha Chae-youn (Son Ye-jin - The Last Princess, My Wife Got Married etc) was a hostage negotiator working for the Seoul police department. She worked with her partner Ahn Hyuk-soo (Kim Sang-ho - Fabricated City, Running Man etc) under the leadership of Captain Jung (Lee Moon-sik - Mapado, The 101st Proposal etc).
After her last case, Chae-youn who was thinking of resigning, was suddenly given a very tough assignment to negotiate a hostage situation with the kidnapper Min Tae-gu (Hyun Bin - Confidential Assignment, The Fatal Encounter etc) threatening to kill a reporter. With a special forces team aiming to capture Tae-gu and releasing the hostage, Chae-youn was tasked to buy some time before the hostage was killed.
So what was Tae-gu's intention? And could Chae-youn save the hostage? Find them all in this quite suspenseful crime thriller movie.
End of Brief Story Line
OK, I got to make an embarrassing confession that I forgotten what Hyun Bin looked like, despite having watched him in another movie some time ago. So when I saw this movie yesterday, I really thought he was someone whom I never seen before. Even my wife who had known him from other series previously thought that he looked so much different now. Whatever he looked now, it doesn't hide the fact that his performance in this movie was quite amazing. He was truly convincing as a somewhat charming, cool but ruthless kidnapper that managed to keep everyone in the police department on their toes. Which meant that Hyun Bin was able to portray multiple different characters throughout his career.
Meanwhile the protagonist here played quite amazingly by Son Ye-jin who had her own problems prior to this specific case. Her persistence in finding out the truth behind the kidnapping was also refreshing to see. In terms of the plot itself, what started out as just a simple hostage negotiation drama, ended with a surprisingly dramatic turn around. I thought that this movie would be just drama of the hostage negotiation, but it also had some actions which was pretty entertaining.
What also surprised me was for a Korean movie which usually would have many emotional moments, I felt this film only had very few of them and I thought my wife was not really affected. I also could understand why the film had to end like how it did, however, I was not really satisfied with the finale moment which I thought would have been more fulfilling had it ended a different way. Though this is only my personal opinion.
As a crime thriller movie, it really delivered in the suspense and intense part. My wife and I were really entertained by the suspense, and the music background was awesome. Really made us feeling intense most of the time. And the mystery surrounding the kidnapping purpose was also quite entertaining. There were also few amusing moments usually involving Chae-youn's partner played by Kim Sang-ho who was quite accustomed to funnier movies.
Overall this was quite an interesting and enjoyable movie. It did not have too long duration which was less than 2 hours including the end credit scenes. My wife and I were pretty entertained. Those looking for a nice Korean movie about hostage negotiation with some actions and mystery should be able to enjoy this film. But if you are expecting lots of actions or the story from beginning till end only focusing on the negotiation itself might be in for a different treat. The choice is yours.
Happy watching!
Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
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