Director: Hong Won-chan
Year: 2020
Country: South Korea
Alternate Titles: Daman akeseo guhasoseo
Genre: Action
Plot:
After tackling one last job, a veteran assassin decides to hang up the life and retire to a life of paradise but is soon informed that a case might be of interest. A woman he knew in Thailand was recently killed and her daughter, who turns out to have been kidnapped by a ruthless gang of thugs for sale in a local organ smuggling ring, and forces him to visit the country in search of his daughter. While on the way, he soon comes to find that the brother of a previous target is bent on settling the score for the murder he committed, complicating matters in his quest to save his daughter as the ruthless killers continually interfere with each other’s activities.
Review:
Overall, this was a pretty fun genre effort with a lot to like. The film carries itself rather nicely on the sense of action and spectacle carried throughout here which is a rather impressive feature. Getting a showcase for his assassination skills at the very beginning when he takes out the gang of Yakuza members at their secluded house which also manages to give this a nice jolt to start the film, it serves as a fine segway into later scenes including a beatdown of assassins in an elevator, a hand-to-hand battle with knife-fighters attempting to disrupt his presence inside the orphanage or the brother getting a chance to shine with the double-cross of the local thugs by using his knife skills to dispatch them one-by-one. Other impressive scenes include a blazing gunfight on the city streets of Bangkok as there’s a lot of fun to be had with the rapid-fire action and large-scale stunt-work that goes into the scene which also manages to work the same for the big battle in the apartment which is a fine finale. This comes off as a great way to keep the energy and suspense constant throughout here with the impressive work in this important category.
Beyond the action, there’s plenty to like here with the various plotlines enabling this to carry themselves out. The initial ambush on the Yakuza boss ignites the storyline about the brother wanting revenge rather nicely, bringing about the utter cluelessness everyone had about him not being involved in their lives until the very end of the mission. Gathered alongside this is the revelation about his identity and original purpose that could’ve been avoided had he agreed to one last job that would’ve brought them together much earlier than expected in a fine coincidence, this is all quite enjoyable. On top of that, there’s a lot to enjoy here with the idea of the main search for the missing girl in a foreign country that gradually evolves into being a child organ-smuggling ring that denotes the significance of him rushing to find her. Given the way these intersect where the realization that his quest to find the girl could bring the two of them together and bringing several confrontations in the middle of the search, there’s a lot of great work here and feature a lot to like overall.
There isn’t much in the way of flaws with this one. One of the biggest issues is the general repetitiveness and overall routine nature of the general setup featured here. The idea of a prolonged chase through the underworld of scummy characters in order to find a kidnapped child close to them is a fairly common storyline that doesn’t really come off as all that original or surprising. There’s little about this setup that won’t be predicted in terms of the general setup and how the investigation to track her down carries out, which although keeping itself highly entertaining regardless still presents itself as fairly routine and familiar overall. As well, there’s also a bit of a break in the action at the wrong time as the setup for all this carries too many points that don’t need to be there, stuttering the tempo of the first half of the film. From the various assassinations of outside figures to the butcher moving through the underground himself, there’s a bit too much going on here that does take a bit out of the film. However, neither of these are really distracting or detrimental compared to the positives.
Overview: ***.5/5
A highly enjoyable and impressive thriller that mixes together with a fun story and impressive action sequences, overall this one comes off as a wholly entertaining if somewhat familiar genre effort that does have some minor issues included. Those with a strong taste for these action/thrillers from Asia or fans of the creative crew will have a lot of fun with this one while those who don’t enjoy these flaws or the style should heed caution.
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