The Yellow Sea (2010)

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Na Hong-jin directs Ha Jung-woo, Kim Yoon-seok and Kwak Do-won in this thriller about a poor Chinese taxi driver who has to violently settle the debt of his missing wife’s visa fee and also find her within one week. 

What starts as a mildly diverting modern noir about immigration and sexual jealousy suddenly leaps the rails at the one hour mark, becoming an unrelenting and frankly flabbergastingly action packed chase movie. Amateur assassin and lovelorn husband goes from cautiously planning murder and aimlessly tracking down his missing missus to being a human pinball bounced between police squads, rampant gangs, cargo ships and articulated lorries. Two lengthy chases, that would no doubt make Jason Bourne salute as he passes, make this worth your while. They don’t exactly justify the 160 minute running time and as more and more characters are introduced in the final hour it can be slightly confusing to western eyes exactly who is who and what bearing they have to the flabby plot. Still Ha Jung-woo is involvingly dead eyed as the man out of his depth constantly churning the waters, while Kim Yoon-seok is memorable and cool as the gangster who not only initially sets him in motion but soon finds himself leading the chase.

7

 

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