The Man from Nowhere

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🎙️ EPISODE 286: 07.23.2020 Another great pick from the gods of TRUE RANDOM! Thank you gods! There is such a vast amount of world cinema I have not explored (literally too much) but South Korean films in particular seem to have an extremely high batting average (welcome back, baseball, btw).

This is a DARK thriller with subject matter that gets pretty gruesome (read: child slavery), even if they spare the viewer from TOO much of that. It's a masterfully paced thriller, if not a touch convoluted in the plot department. Underneath it all, it's simple: our hero, a mystery man, is in search of a missing girl, his neighbor. They ramp up the violence exponentially until we get to the balls-to-the-wall climax where said hero takes on and defeats over a dozen bad guys in a seriously bloody knife fight + shootout. In the lead-up, we get just enough action mixed in with the story and character development and also this guy dropkicking a guy in a wheelchair...

This guy isn't really handicapped btw

This movie felt extremely influenced by Tarantino, a mix of his early crime neo-noir and more intense Kill Bill-style ultraviolence. There's an odd comedic tone intertwined as well, when and where appropriate. Everything builds to the point when we finally learn about our hero's backstory and why he cares so much about this little girl (tw: this scene is rough)...

...but also, maybe, so over-the-top that it dulls the severity? I'm not sure.

Writer/director Lee Jeong-beom is clearly talented at crafting unique shots and getting the most out of his action sequences. His filmography all seems to be in this thriller-action-crime wheelhouse, and I would definitely check out his other work going forward.

In tangentially-related news, there is an Indian remake of this that's apparently pretty awful but I got a chuckle out of its title...

CHRONOLOGICALLY
⫷ EPISODE 285B - (YOU ARE HERE) - EPISODE 287 ⫸

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