|
The Yellow Sea
| Released |
14 October 2011 |
| Director |
Na Hong-Jin |
Starring
|
Ha Jung-Woo, Kim Yun-Seok, Cho Seong-Ha |
| Writer(s) |
Na Hong-Jin |
| Producer(s) |
Han Sung-Goo |
| Origin |
South Korea |
| Running Time |
140 minutes |
| Genre |
Crime, drama, thriller |
| Rating |
18 |
|
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Brilliant.
There's a dual tradition of art-house and ultra-violence in South Korean cinema. In The Yellow Sea a bit of both is fulfilled, never a bullet ballet or true martial arts and mutilation film like Old Boy, The Yellow Sea still doesn't pull its punches. Mixing the impoverished anxiety of the overcrowded inner city with an oftentimes immersive criminal world The Yellow Sea begins to establish its noir credentials quickly.
Ku-nam a down on his luck cab driver squanders his wage in a seedy underground game of Mah-jong before being strong armed and threatened about his increasing debt by two loan sharks who have lent him money to send his wife illegally to South Korea. Consumed with thoughts that his wife has abandoned him and stuck in an obviously hopeless situation he reasons that if he can find her perhaps he can take her home, and agrees to carry out a high profile hit for crime boss Myung-Ga.
Travelling across The Yellow Sea in a fishing trawler, there's little pity for joseonjok (Chinese of Korean descent) travellers along the way with an anchors away attitude to those too slow to catch a lifeboat to the coast in stormy weather and a succession of ill-treatment and squalid rooms to follow. Soon tense pace follows plot twist after plot twist spiralling into a number of heart pounding sequences that leave you startled, sometimes a bit confused and definitely in awe of director Na Hong-jin's ability to jump from contemplative alienation and Patricia Highsmith level noir to limb hacking gang stand-offs and Die Hard-esque one man against hundreds of henchmen moments.
Teaming up with actor Ha Jeong-woo for the first time since 2008's serial killer thriller Chaser, Na Hong-jin proves it's a combination that continues to have spectacular results. Screened in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes this year, if superb action paired with great cinematography, social commentary and an awesome script seem like your cup of kick ass tea, here's your movie.
- Cormac O’Brien |
