Story line (3.5/5)
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Middle-aged spy, Cheol-soo, struggled to maintain his demanding secret job to protect national security and his relationship with his even-more-demanding wife. Just when they're trying to get pregnant, an urgent mission came up; a mission to protect the daughter of the late North Korean Prime Minister, which required Cheol-soo to once again left his wife and went to Thailand. The daughter happened to be a target of all Asian Mob and Spies (aside from South Korea); Japan, North Korea, Chinese Mafias, even the CIA. It gets more complicated when Cheol-soo's wife got lured in by one Super Handsome and Charming Spy (yes, this title is appropriate and will be used in in this review), and somehow got involved in the operation.
What's interesting about this movie was, although it was involving lot of other Asian country's spies, the range of the main issue was around South and North Korea relationship. It's somewhat refreshing compared to the typical Hollywood spy movies in which the villain desired to take over the entire world, and only the mighty USA can save us.
In this movie, the villain's goal was to start a war between North and South Korea, and what's in jeopardy (the happily-ever-after, if-there's-no-villain-exist version) was the unification of the two countries. Hmm, that's what I called an issue close to home.
The idea of spy and his personal life conflict was not entirely new. What made the movie interesting was the Korean setting with it's cultural and political theme.
Actors (4/5)
Actors (4/5)
I didn't have many reference to Korean movies and Korean actors yet, but I can say that I enjoyed the main actors in this movie;
- Seol Kyeong-gu did a good job playing highly capable spy slash nervous husband,
- Moon So-ri played a very believable role of tense and annoying wife,
- Ko Chang-seok's act as the dependable, pushed-around side kick gave extra point for the comedic side,
- and Daniel Henney as Super Handsome and Charming Spy was superb (Ladies, prepare to see him as a bellboy in uniform shooting gun, as a tourist with casual suite, in tuxedo, and speeding in a BMW O_O).
As the main target of operation, I thought Han Ye-ri could've shown a bit more emotion, she's too cold and overly calm.
The funny thing about this movie was, that the American look stupid here. The production team seems to perceived the non-Korean roles was less important so (it looked like) they cast some mediocre actors.
Execution (3.5/5)
Execution (3.5/5)
What I like about this movie was the fact that it had Hollywood appeal wrapped with Eastern Culture. A spy movie based on Korean political landscape and culture setting was a new concept to me.
With my perspective of "spy movie", it has lack amount of gadgets. There were actually more spying (spying on the wive counts), more weapon & arms fight than gadget showcase. The gadgets displayed were simple and effective, but unfortunately lack of innovation-feels in it.
The Spy Headquarter also seems a bit shaky. An underground bunker with ten-ish people, one half-circular table with 3 operator and the captain sitting in the middle, communicating with our spies. Again, with my perspective of "Secret Spy HQ", I imagined it would be all white with hi-tech devices everywhere, lots of people, and a giant screen which we all could see what the spies see. But that might be the "Hollywood Style", this was an undercover spy HQ after all.
The action and effect was appropriate. There were some slow motion fighting, gun shoots, several explosion here and there. The detail was quite impressive, but not quite to give the audience an impression for it.
That's what I thought, what do YOU think? Post a comment!
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