Review of Assassination (2015) by Alex Bonafide A — 27 Aug 2015

Long before WWII, Japan had occupied and controlled Korea. While there were some inside the Korean nobility that stood to benefit from this, others within the working class felt differently. "Assassination" tells the fictional story of an attempt on two high-ranking pro-Japanese officials, ordered by the Korean provisional government and the Liberation Resistance.

There are a lot of characters to keep track of in this movie. There are the three main assassins, the notorious prison-escapee which recruited them, two leaders of the Korean provisional government, and a freelance hit man and his sidekick to name a few. To make it worse, it feels like 3 to 4 plotlines of independent parties are occurring all at once. And yet while there were times where I found myself asking the "who, what, where, when, why" as characters and time frames changed, somehow it wasn't enough to destroy the main plot. Each main character begins to feel like a separate entity as the movie progresses-- some rely on traditional stereotypes, but enough distinction is made where each body is, in fact, a character rather than just another person in the main cast (i.e. the dwarves from "The Hobbit" movies). These characters provide a surprisingly wide range of narrative tones as a result of their personalities. The movie would often deviate between comedic, tense, carefree, and serious; at times, I had forgotten how desperate the plot was until gunshots and blood resurfaced on the big screen. These tonal shifts also had a romanticized effect on the characters as well, creating the idea that some were impervious to any kind of catastrophe only to be shown completely mortal later on. It is this interesting blend of cinema-fantasy and realism that makes "Assassination" a thrilling ride, since you literally have no idea what will happen next.

Make no mistake, this is a Korean-directed film with English subtitles throughout. This added a level of exhaustion for an English-speaker like me, as I tried to track with all the dialogue while simultaneously trying to appreciate the visuals and acting. The movie, understandably, has an air of Eastern-style storytelling for better and/or for worse (including some odd camera shots and effects); from a Western standpoint, the movie's pace lulled from the middle onward, isolating the shoot-em'-up action sequences expected and given from the beginning. When the gun fighting was on display, though, it was pretty satisfying. Here again, the joining of realistic and ridiculous combined to bring a measure of epic-ness to the combat. The story as it advanced through history could have been demonstrated better. Without enough warning, the movie shifts from flashback to present day to years later and suddenly the end of WWII.

I can't recall any movies I've seen in recent history to pull off a "The Great Escape" or "The Dirty Dozen" as well as this movie. Everything from the atmosphere to the action stylizes that kind of movie so well that other modern attempts ("The Monuments Men", "Saving Private Ryan", "Fury", etc.) fall short in some degree, due to a misplaced theatrical element. "Assassination" is a rare harkening back to older cinema where characters and story are just as important as the action they lead up to; it is a reminder of a more realistic desperation able to be crafted due to the time devoted to backstories and individuality of cast members. In closing, even in this movie's shortcomings and peculiarity to Western audiences, "Assassination" is worth a watch.