The Yellow Sea (2010) Jung-woo Ha, Yun-seok Kim, Sung-ha Jo Movie Review

The Yellow Sea (2010)   3/53/53/53/53/5

Certificate

18

Length

157 mins

Director


Jung-woo Ha in The Yellow Sea (2010)

Crossed

In the depressing Yanji City, lives cabbie Gu-Nam (Jung-woo Ha) whose life has fallen into the routine of working but not making enough, losing his money at the small mah-jong dens each night, going home and dreaming off his wife who cleared of in to South Korea before waking up with debt collectors in his room hassling him for money he doesn't have. Angry and pushed too far one night Gu-Nam comes to the attention of gangster Myun-ga (Yun-seok Kim) who will wipe out his debts if he heads to South Korea and kills a business man, returning with the man's thumb as proof. Whilst not a trained killer Gu-Nam agrees as it will give him a chance to look for his wife at the same time. But Gu-Nam find things are a lot more complicated that he realised when someone else murders the businessman but he ends up on the run with the cops after him.

Ignore the references to Korea and Korean actors and "The Yellow Sea" sounds just like a mainstream thriller where we have a man down on his luck who then finds himself in over his head when he agrees to kill someone despite not being a killer. And whilst it is a Korean movie it lacks none of the production values that you would expect from a Hollywood production with strong camera work and violence which grabs your attention. It is why whilst foreign cinema may not be your thing "The Yellow Sea" is worth watching as it is extremely accessible for those who enjoy gritty thrillers.

But "The Yellow Sea" is a Korean movie and in many ways breathes new life in to a movie which if it had been made in America probably would have ended up ordinary. There is a real sense of dirt to the movie from the locations to the actors and it draws you in especially as director Hong-jin Na uses the locations as a character in themself. And the actors feed off of the locations with Jung-woo Ha as Gu-Nam helping to make the cold of South Korea come to life. It is hard to put in to words but in a simple movie to follow where Gu-Nam finds himself being double crossed there is a lot of detail which helps to make it a visually rich experience and an attention keeping one.

In many ways it is actor Jung-woo Ha who makes the movie as he comes across as determined, almost Jason Bourne determined but without the skills. It is a brilliant performance which keeps you glued to the movie due to the way he makes him human but also relentless in how he goes about things which means there are some fantastic chase scenes as well some shocking moments of violence especially as this is a movie where people use knives to do their dirty work and by dirty work I mean brutal batterings and blood soaked killings.

There is only one real issues I have with "The Yellow Sea" and that is at 157 minutes it is a long movie which at times goes a bit too far in trying to create character as well as establishing circumstances. It make me wonder if that is purely because as a foreign language movie I had to concentrate more or whether that is how it also comes across for those who can follow with out subtitles.

What this all boils down to is that "The Yellow Sea" is a captivating thriller which somehow manages to take something not out of the ordinary and make it exciting. If only it wasn't so long it would have been a great movie.


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