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HEROIC-CINEMA'S REVIEW:
I sat down to this one with Mark's comments ringing in
my ears (or at least on my retinas, said comments being
encapsulated in an email). And you know how it is when somebody
waxes lyrical about a film: first you get excited, then you get
dubious, and finally you get a bit blase. So there I was, curling
up with a highly-recommended Korean actioner and two cats ( my
film review colleagues) preparing to be disappointed. |
| And man, it was great. Really. From the first blast of the
soundtrack, which ran almost constantly, to the last "dammitall"
grin of Park Jung Hoon (playing Woo, a detective), the film
captured and held my attention. I haven't seen such a consummate
action film for quite a while.
So what made it so great? Well, for starters, there was very
little dialogue, which meant almost no exposition of the plot.
Everything was conveyed visually, without the need for characters
to stand around and explain plot points. It also meant that the
plot was pared down to the barest bones: cops hunting an elusive
murder suspect. It's not a mystery, though, so it doesn't matter
that the plot is so simple. What does matter is the skill with
which the director, Lee Myung Sae, leads us through the world of
these cops, into their lives and minds and out again, without
dialog or a complex back-story or any of the usual devices.
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| Another factor was the cinematography
and visual composition. It was obvious that this cinematographer
didn't just set up his camera somewhere flat, point and shoot. I'd
bet that a great deal of thought went into precise angles, and
framing considerations, and all the other magic of the
cinematographers art: the stuff that turns a film into art rather
than craft (or indeed crap, examples of which I won't mention). A
particularly favourite scene was the pursuit on the train: a bunch
of cops chasing one suspect who becomes several when accomplices
join the fray. The chaotic and crowded melee, cops in disguise
fighting bad guys with knives, swords, and big sticks, while all
around frightened passengers desperately try to flee, became
almost balletic in slow motion. We follow the character's eyes, we
see who they're watching, and follow their intent, as the entire
passenger list tries to get into the aisle. An earlier scene, of
cops inhabiting an apartment waiting for a suspect, stirred up
like an ant's nest by the door buzzer, showed this same
slow-motion sort-out. |
| One aspect that will doubtless appeal to those who
enjoy a good beat-up, at least on film, is the attitude of the
cops. These are not the heroes of the downtrodden, nor are they
hard men of the sort to inspire excitable adolescents. These cops
are just tired and overworked, and given to bouts of rather
excessively enthusiastic violence in their quest for the suspect.
I've never seen so many men carrying baseball bats, big knives,
and what seemed to be iron bars, at least not outside of a Hong
Kong triad film. And I've never seen the cops break down an
apartment door, rummage around, frighten the returning tenant (the
suspect's girlfriend), and then move in with her en masse. It's as
if the rough treatment of suspects is just the entree: what you
really have to worry about is when the cop takes you home and
feeds you noodles. |
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| I was also taken with the quality of
the fight and chase scenes. For once, the fighting was largely
unscientific, slow, and without the inevitable "thwock"
sounds of fist hitting flesh, but there was a dogged determination
and a realism that made the fights totally believable. Woo,
described by his colleagues as someone who wants desperately to
get in a fight, is not a good fighter. At least, not if your
definition of a good fighter includes someone who hits more often
than they miss. But he tries, using any means, and just won't lay
down and die. There's a marvellous fight scene, shown almost
totally by the shadows of the participants, which makes it clear
that he fights dirty, and often wins only by sheer
bloody-mindedness (and probably by irritating his opponents until
they give up). Chase scenes, too, give us a blow-by-blow, or
stagger-by-stagger, picture of Woo: he takes off after the suspect
on foot and won't quit, his swaggering knees-out walk become a
shambling not-quite-collapse that somehow keeps him upright and
moving.
Now I could go on and on, wiffling on rapturously about folding
chair fu, serious rain, mud wrestling and baseball bats, but I'll
get smacked if I don't stop soon, so I'll sum up: Nowhere To
Hide won't fill you with the joy of the chase, but it will
fill you with the joy of superb Korean cinema.
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| Rating: 9 and a half baseball bats out of 10
Reviewed by Alison Jobling
OTHER REVIEWS:
LunaSea at LoveHKFilm
Nixflix
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H E R O I C - C I N E M A
http://www.heroic-cinema.com
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