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No one will be able to make a difference
Screened as the closing film in 2022 Cannes, the director aims to expose the weakness of this gruesome capitalist system that strips off every little hope in the youths and basically makes them a robot everyday earning pennies. It all started from a forced internship program as a school curricular, exploitation on cheap labor yet doing demanding and unforgiving task. It's extremely sad to to watch it as we're all basically going through the same thing everyday, and no one will be able to make a difference as it is deemed as a reality for everyone to survive.Was this review helpful to you?
Bizarre and hilarious
A cult classic styled comedy horror mixed bag that has an abundance of tricks up in its sleeves and it's hell lots of fun, it never stops throwing surprises around that are relentlessly entertaining. The insane acting performances from Lee Sung Min and Lee Hee Joon overpowering an absolutely dumb plot yet it works ridiculously well for its hilarious effects, what an utterly bizarre movie that was stylish enough to give it some great satisfying laughs.Was this review helpful to you?
Mind blowing multidirectional intelligence mission
The plot is a totally unexpected mind blowing multidirectional intelligence mission that involves tons of critical stakes at war. The story is so complex it comes with an incredible amount of political factors that one could never imagine, but only to be impressed again and again on how the writer could let it play out in such a way. At the start it may seem a bit generic, but as the story progresses it bites on and keeps getting better by pushing its limits while still able to throw in multiple twists that makes a whole lot of sense foreshadowing on conspiracies of the real political world. The vintage setting and tight action choreography are all in jaw dropping fine quality, they definitely deserve the 2022 Cannes invitation which lives up to its name.Was this review helpful to you?
Realistic modus operandi of tech crime
The storyline has a similar genre to Netflix's Unlocked movie, which is also about smartphone stalking, and the fear inducing hunting has almost the same level of terror as Tving's Midnight, a legendary Kmovie about stalking. Here the movie takes a more practical approach to the notorious tech crime. The plot is really innovative as it features the realistic modus operandi of the criminal, the pacing is great with nail biting suspense. Meanwhile for Shin Hye Sun headlining this movie, I knew she's gonna be great for this role and it really is, her acting performance is freaking insane. The ending is so crazily scary, I'm gonna get PTSD after watching it.Was this review helpful to you?
The cream of the crop in cinematic swordsmanship
First screened as the opening film at Busan International Film Festival 2024, this has proven to be a worthy eye-opener, and what's even better than Netflix making it available to watch right away globally. For a movie about swordsmanship, it does have a rather fancy plot that has multiple layers of depth in its character design and geopolitical setting. It was fueled with thick story development in class ideology and royal politics to generate that really serious buildup for the tension before the final fight, that core motivation of the characters may seem a little imprudent at first but it works well and gives a brilliant resolution towards the end. The final fight featuring trio swordsman is seriously the cream of the crop in cinematic martial arts sequence, everything is meticulously measured with the highest precision from tactical details to camera works, the scale is just unbelievably stupendous as it will definitely make you grab on the edge of the seat unknowingly while screaming out of shock when watching.Was this review helpful to you?
Gigantic suspense through skies and clouds
The scale of this movie is so gigantic you wouldn't be able to imagine how they were able to build a story development in such an impressive way. The suspense just keeps on rising like climbing through skies and clouds, accompanied by best of class soundtrack that heightens every stakes. The airborne action scenes are of course groundbreaking, but what's more surprising is the depth of its story is so powerful, it's equipped with a lot of factors on a global level, especially in the latter half of the movie it puts human principles into test, spanning across every possible behaviors when they're pushed to their limits. Given its constructive ending, even how ugly humanity is sometimes, they're suggesting a glimpse of hope that we all deserve during a catastrophic situation we faced everyday.Was this review helpful to you?
Weirdly off tone
A cool premise that is supposed to be thought provoking but messed up so hard it doesn't know where it's heading to. They're trying a mystery blend of mystical and crime thrillers together but don't go along too well mainly due to its poor choice of plot design, and it also abruptly turn into some kind of odd detective drama with weak plot twists making the whole movie weirdly off tone, but at least cinematography is not bad.Was this review helpful to you?
The story writing has to be better than this
A standard disaster survival formulaic that bears a lot of similarities to their own Korean counterpart, everything feels too familiar and predictable, done with just a different set of creatures and characters. The setting is surely not a problem, to execute this brilliantly it requires top quality writing, but the emotions just don't hit so well in here, not to mention about the plot holes that are hard not to notice, action sequence is acceptable though it looks too much of a setup on purpose. As one of the two final films of the late actor Lee Sunkyun, his performance is respectable and it will be remembered in the legacy of his works.Was this review helpful to you?
A crowd-pleaser by default
Striking retro visuals with quite a standard and straightforward storyline, almost like some documentary of sorts, but that's customary due to its referencing from a true story. The nostalgia setting is attractive enough to watch though the plot can get as annoying as it could, till a point that it gets really flat throughout the second half of the drama. It's a well built family issue drama that doesn't go anywhere groundbreaking, but the faithful theme and acting performance is a stronger suit that makes this a crowd-pleaser by default.Was this review helpful to you?
Nail-biting three way fight
Kill Boksoon spin off movie set in a generation farther away from the original premise, where the monopoly of M. K. Ent. is already a past thing, now multiple startups are fighting to feed on the leftovers of this sunset industry, some even extend it into other business scope like tech and gaming.In such desperate era, the story cleverly follows along the new coup d'etat leader of M. K. Ent. and his two young aspiring successors, but having bad blood between each other, as the ambitious buildup pitted them into a complicated three way fight for its high adrenaline triad fighting sequence ending.
It may not have that intense charisma of Jeon Doyeon and Sol Kyunggu have to offer, they're totally phenomenal previously, this movie did make sufficient effort to maintain that quality, as Im Siwan and Park Gyuyoung is still a very convincing pair on screen.
The action choreography, cinematography, and soundtrack, all are well done enough and it is a nail-biting movie that successfully keeps its unique world of killers emotionally valid.
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Satisfying comedy effects
A hardcore dumb premise that is absurdly built till a point that it's almost like a cult movie in its own class. Weirdly enough it also has an outrageously great storytelling and acting that gives in a solid performance for the comedy effects, provided that logical thinking is to be ignored completely, then it will be a satisfying ride in its particular sense.Was this review helpful to you?
Fresh urban horror techniques
This is one of the better Korean urban city horror with surprisingly refreshing techniques that doesn't rely heavily on extreme graphics to build its horror, instead it uses multiple plotlines with clever foreshadowing from a narrator perspective to induce fear onto the threat itself. There's even a touch of world building that heightens the significance of the incident site, effectively making the premise believable and spine chilling.Was this review helpful to you?
The final act is the main highlight
It surprisingly turns out that this is less of an action movie than ever, in contrast to its movie poster and trailer that screams adrenaline. The focus on the tension between Hwang Jung Min as diplomat, and Hyun Bin as NIS agent is the main driver that pushes the movie forward, but that could be a hit or miss sometimes. The final act will be the main highlight of this movie, Hwang Jung Min's sheer amount of acting skills during the final negotiation is so prominent that it's keeping the audience at the edge of seats induced in fear. Overall the cinematography was shot with great attention to details, and a storyline that works well, it's still a brilliant movie to be fair.Was this review helpful to you?
The by-product of advancement in humanity
Kang Ha Neul is hitting the home run this year with yet another headlining movie lead which is also about a contemporary phenomenon that comes with some really extreme form of storytelling and psychotic presentation, he's just so good at these kinds of roles you just couldn't get enough of his sheer performing power on screen. It's amazing that the director was able to give light to something so prevalent but most of the time ignored in this urban dystopia, it's literally the by-product of advancement in humanity. The final arc of the storyline might have taken a step too far from being realistic, but the intention there was to maximize such absurdity taken from real life situations, that itself is actually very effective and sad at the same time.Was this review helpful to you?
Unable to live up to standards
It's not the most attractive mobster revenge plot or having the most surprising political plot twists, to be honest the motivation design of every character is quite barebone and lackluster, the linkage that was presented is largely unconvincing at logical reasoning. Then there are those fighting sequences which were supposed to be the main highlight of this premise, yet they just turn out to be some dull looking bloody slugfest with really messy combat techniques, both storytelling and action fail to live up to its standards.Was this review helpful to you?
