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Shiri
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 | Film InfoYear: 1999 Country: South Korea Director: Kang Je-gyu Cast: Han Suk-Gyu, Choi Min-Shik, Song Kang-Ho Running time: 122 min Language: Korean with English subtitles Distributed in Australia by: Force Entertainment
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Synopsis:
Ryu and Lee are both special service agents of South Korea's secret intelligence organization. Ryu and Lee chase a group of terrorists to retrieve explosives but get trapped. It appears that the Head of the North Korean Terrorist Group, Park, plans to bring about war by detonating the explosives during a soccer game between the North and South Korean teams. When North Korean agent, Hee, seems to be gleaning inside information from an inside source, Ryu and Lee begin to grow suspicious of each other. |
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Review:
The reunification of the two Koreas is obviously something of great concern in South Korea, and Shiri drives this fact home. But don't mistake me: this is not a dry political drama, or a slice of propaganda. This one is a compelling actioner that will have you clenching every muscle you possess, and maybe some of those on the person sitting next to you.
The plot is a simple one, dealing with double agents from North Korea and a dastardly plan to blow stuff up. Fair enough, and nothing new so far. But the treatment, giving as it does a window into the situation of South and North Korea, lifts the result into a new league. I found that the film improves on a second viewing, as I missed some of the subtleties that gave texture the first time around.
It certainly doesn't hurt that the film uses the talents of three of Korea's hottest actors, and works them hard. Choi Min Shik, in particular, as the leader of the Northern team, pulls out all the stops including the Vox Dei and the Vox Truly Hard Man, and won himself an award for his performance. His impassioned rant in a crucial scene, following his steely-eyed automatic brutality in earlier scenes, gives a frightening insight into what can drive people to behave as they do.
One flaw was what I considered to be excessive use of wibbly-wobbly camerawork, which makes me feel queasy and not at all inclined to pay attention. But the twisting and turning of the plot outweighs the wibbling and wobbling of the camera, and overall there's much more here than just chase 'em and shoot 'em.
There's one aspect of this movie that might escape most of us, but which probably contributed at least in part to its huge box office success in South Korea. Anyone living outside of Korea probably doesn't appreciate how deeply the North-South rift is felt, and how painful the decades-long separation of the peoples can be. So the film is named after a fish that lives in rivers both North and South, since fish don't recognise boundaries. The Korean people also live North and South, but are always aware that their nation is divided: one people, two countries. If you bear that in mind, you might see the film, and indeed the world, in a whole new light.
8.5 small fish out of 10 by Alison Jobling back to the top
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DVD Releases
| Distributed by Force Entertainment: |
| Shiri | available now |
| Making of Shiri (55 minutes)
Original trailer
The transfer is fairly clear, although some scenes involving rapid panning or fast movement are a bit jerky. The menu structure is nicely done, although for some reason the languages and subtitles setup is cunningly hidden in the extras menu.
There is one trailer for this, and sadly it's an American one, so it makes the movie sound less interesting than it is (as US trailers almost invariably do). Once Force gets a respectable catalogue, they'd do well to include trailers for other films, because I for one always check out other stuff. But only if it's the original trailer, of course.
The "Making of..." is very detailed, and quite interesting. There's lots of "how we did this scene, and who got hurt" sections, interviews with the actors, and some shots from the film. Watch this after you've seen the film, though, because it contains spoilers.
Languages offered are Korean and English, with nice yellow subtitles in English. I'd strongly advise that you use the Korean track, for the following reasons:
the English dialogue is really hokey in parts;
the Korean soundtrack has a fine balance between music and, for example, gunfire, whereas the English track often lets the gunshots override the music and other ambient sounds, making it seem flat and amateurish;
the sound of the Korean language is important, not just what they say, and you get extra contextual depth from the voices of the actors (which you don't get from the voice actors);
if you avoid the Korean soundtrack, you'll miss out on the inestimable joys of hearing Choi Min Shik go completely barking mad in his own language, and that would be a great loss indeed.
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Relevant links
Official US website, by Subway Cinema back to the top
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review archive
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Heroic Buddies
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