Cold Eyes (***1/4) [screening]

You’ve seen movies like this before. (You could have even seen one very much like it, since this is a remake of a Hong Kong film.) A criminal gang with a polished mastermind faces off against an elite law enforcement squad. (A movie like that called Elite Squad is one of Brazil’s biggest hits ever.) The squad specializes in surveillance. They identify; they trace; they tag; they track. But, when it comes time to engage, they call in the tactical team, following protocol. They use tactics that, when employed against Will Smith in 1998’s Enemy of the State, seemed to obviously exceed the possible, and now, with electronic eyes surveying major segments of major cities around the world, seem increasingly plausible.

The heroine of this saga (Hyo-ju Han) is the squad’s newbie — code name Piglet. Perhaps because she is female, she gets to show a broader range of emotion than one might expect. The hero is the squad leader, Falcon, who gives her a stringent memorization test in the type of set piece that’s often a staple of this kind of movie. All of the squad have animal nicknames, and Falcon literally moves them (or wooden representations, actually) around on a chess board that represents the streets of Seoul. They even give their first suspect an animal nickname. Caught on camera buying a soft drink, he becomes a “thirsty hippo.” The movie begins with a bank heist and climaxes with a lengthy chase sequence. They’re quite well done, and while I think I missed a link or two in the chain of evidence that allows the squad to identify the mastermind, the chases are clearly shot, and the two directors have a strong visual sense generally. 

The level of violence is moderate. There’s some humor in the banter between the squad members. Again, nothing entirely new here, but a well-done thriller.

IMDb link

viewed 10/24/13 7:00 pm at Ritz East [Philadelphia Film Festival screening] and posted 10/25/13

Castaway on the Moon (***1/2)

This Korean gem may or may not be inspired by a similarly titled Tom Hanks film, but it has a unique approach with even more of a fable-like quality. Instead of an island in the middle of nowhere, the luckless hero winds up, after a botched suicide attempt, on an uninhabited islet in the Han River, in sight of the skyscrapers of Seoul. His calamity is also a refuge, and, in a way, unites him with a shut-in young woman on shore. The humor in the early part of the movie is slightly to the goofy side (there’s no talking with a volleyball, but something like that), but the conclusion is heartfelt. An American remake is planned.

IMDB link

viewed 11/8/11 [Netflix streaming] and reviewed 11/8/11

My Dear Enemy (**3/4)

A woman spends the day hounding her ex-boyfriend as he drives around Seoul trying to round up the money he needs to repay what he owes her. The slightly comic drama has a nice, albeit frequently melancholy feel to it, but its episodic structure is a mixed bag. The boyfriend spends the movie bumming money off of other women, and some of these visits are more exciting than others. Meanwhile, the personalities—though only a little of the backstory—of the two characters emerge. Judicious trimming would have improved a decent concept.

IMDB link

viewed 4/5/09 at Ritz 5 (Philadephia Film Festival) and reviewed 5/3/09

The Chaser (***3/4)

Watching this Korean action-thriller makes you realize how many ways there are to do this kind of film other than the ways Hollywood has gotten people used to. The sort-of hero is a surly pimp who does most of the chasing on foot. The killer is an ordinary-looking guy with no special powers or elaborate apparatuses. His victim is a demure-looking prostitute with a young daughter. And the police range from competent to crooked to inept, but most often the last.

There is infrequent but realistic brutality, yet also some humor that does nothing to diminish the parts that are serious and even tender. (A very good music score sets a melancholy mood at times.) I kept waiting for the predictable tropes of the genre to show up, but they don’t. Even though the whodunit is established in the first fifteen minutes of the movie, there’s more real suspense than in half a dozen typical thrillers. The sure-to-be-inferior American remake awaits.

IMDB link

viewed at Ritz East (Philadelphia Film Festival) and reviewed 3/30/09