Review of The Man from Nowhere (2010) by Mike F — 12 Aug 2011

Korea's answer to "Man on Fire," "The Man from Nowhere" covers familiar plot territory with style and heart. A little girl develops a relationship with the quiet next door neighbor. He's reluctant and distant with her at first, but she wins him over just in time to be kidnapped by a drug cartel. He effortlessly gets the upper hand on a few of them as she's taken, and sets off to get her back. As the drug lords try to warn him off, telling him he "doesn't know who he's dealing with," it becomes clear that it's actually the other way around.

While the plot is familiar, the execution is superb. Bin Won plays the hero as a quiet mystery, a man whose ingenuity and training hint at a past littered with bodies. As he works his way through the underworld, leaving it charred and smoldering in his wake, the drug dealers and the audience alike begin to seriously wonder just who the hell this guy is.

The action sequences are wonderfully rendered, including a shot where the camera appears to follow the hero down a hallway, leap through a window with him, and fall to the street below. It is a seamless effect, and represents the kind of competent improvisation that we can expect from the hero, and thus the movie.

It of course builds up to a series of showdowns, the most memorable being a final fight that begins as one man versus twenty five, and ends with two people on either side of a bulletproof windshield. It's extraordinarily satisfying.

The film also features a one-on-one knife fight that is among the best I've ever, ever seen.

Korean cinema is unmatched in its ability to deal with the theme of Vengeance. Chan-wook Park's astonishing Vengeance Trilogy remains one of the seminal pieces of filmmaking of all time in my eyes. There's something built into the culture that allows them to push the limits of depravity and honor in ways that feel entirely authentic and unforced, and this is a fine example of that idea.

If you liked "Taken" or "Man on Fire," this movie will be a real treat. Sure, it's familiar territory, but director Jeong-beom Lee almost makes it feel new. Recommended.