Review of The Man from Nowhere (2010) by Trevor C — 15 Jul 2011

Insanely well shot and violently entertaining. Many compare this to Oldboy, and I can see similarities, but it really isn't as great as most other South Korean movies - and no where near as good as Oldboy. It feels sort of like a comic book in the sense that it's this seemingly unstoppable fighter with a military past going around delivering justice to Korean mobsters one punch at a time - and Oldboy, too, was like a comic (it was, indeed based on a manga series), but Oldboy had a psychological brilliance that this just doesn't live up to. This feels more like a John Woo movie made in South Korea with that sort of comic book hint of charismatic villains and a dark mystery around the silent badass protagonist. This is a very good movie, but don't watch it with expectations of another Oldboy. This is a movie on its own, with its own style and storyline.

The amount of violence in this movie is just plain awesome, not because it's violent for the sake of being violent, but because it's violence that is done well. It's the kind of violence that brings out that sort of primitive side of our subconscious and creates this sort of exciting drive within all of us that just plain feels awesome. This sort of action packed violence is much like, but far more intense, than that of The Chaser (though The Chaser is also a better film).

Accompanied with the violence is an excellent story with equally excellent character development. Cha Tae-Sik (Won Bin) is a man who runs a pawn shop and after his neighbor and her child get kidnapped by gangsters he goes out to save them with his killer military fighting skills - at the same time he is framed for various things, so he is also out for vengeance. That's the story in the most basic sense, and as far fetched as it all seems, it works very well and is a very entertaining film.