Review of The Man from Nowhere (2010) by Wendy K — 01 May 2013

WOW WHERE DO I EVEN BEGIN WITH THIS REVIEW. First of all, this has got to be the best Korean crime action film I have ever seen. The Korean crime action film I saw was at TIFF last year and it was the most melodramatic movie ever. So much unnecessary drama and character history. This one has character history and what not, but damn, if Won Bin doesn't carry this movie on his shoulders. The action sequences are simply badass and so believable. You /believe/ Won Bin is Tae-shik. His facial expressions while he does each of the action and fighting sequences are honest, and whaddaya know, I Google it midway through the film, and he has a background in taekwondo. Second of all, this film is very tightly scripted and directed. A lot of Korean action films, I find, fill the movie up with unnecessary scenes that don't get anywhere, but this one makes each scene count, thoroughly explaining Tae-shik's journey to find Somee. Thirdly, I love how the story intertwined two contradicting parties of people that were after Tae-shik - the police who was unaware of his military intelligence background, and the Chinese/Korean mob who kidnapped Somee in the first place. It was very carefully intertwined too, so that it never gave anything away, or that it would be this clichéd "just missed ya" sort of opportunity.

This film was absolutely excellent. Major hat tip to the director/writer/production for the directing, the script and the scene editing. No shot felt too long (THANK GOODNESS, because this is such a Korean action film weakness), and all the action sequences kept you right at the edge of your seat. A second major hat tip to Won Bin who made everything believable and fully carried this film. I mean, we already knew that he was leading man material, but damn, he has the versatile acting chops as well.

Highly recommend this movie to anyone and everyone. So so so good. Off to see if they have the DVD at Amazon now!