의형제 Secret Reunion 2010

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Secret Reunion opens with a lengthy, exciting prologue before getting to the heart of its story. Ji-won (Gang Dong-won) is a North Korean spy living incognito in Seoul. Although with his stylish appearance he looks just like any other young member of capitalist society, he misses his wife and yearns to return to the North. For his last mission he is called upon by an older spy to take part in an assassination attempt on a former colleague who has switched sides. At the same time, a South Korean intelligence agent named Han-gyu (Song Kang-ho) catches wind of the plot and sets off on a reckless chase to apprehend the would-be assassins.

 

 

 

In these opening scenes you sense at once the strengths of this film. The pace is brisk and there are many things happening at once, but it is so smoothly directed that each twist in the narrative remains clear. The main characters are given depth by a screenplay that highlights their vulnerabilities and presents them with hard moral choices. It is at turns exciting, funny, suspenseful and sad. Later the action will skip ahead six years, when the two lead characters meet up again under very different circumstances. In this longer segment it's pretty easy to guess where the story is headed, but the film's confident execution and memorable details make it easy to ignore this and just enjoy the ride.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Secret Reunion is a very successful second outing for the young director Jang Hun, who began his career as an assistant to Kim Ki-duk and then made his debut in 2008 with the commercial and critical hit Rough Cut. That film, although smaller in scale, is perhaps more innovative and thought-provoking. Secret Reunion was intended to be a more commercial endeavor from the start, but the fact that it was such a hit with audiences (over 5 million tickets sold) should be enough to push Jang's career into the fast lane. Surely we will be hearing more from him in the near future.

 

 

 

Of course, it will surprise no one to hear that one of the key reasons to watch this film is the performance by Song Kang ho. He portrays Han-gyu as someone pulled in several different directions at once. Although he's not above cheating a bit to get ahead, his conscience continues to follow him around, even if he doesn't acknowledge it outwardly. It's not a major departure from his previous roles, but Song's ability to express himself with his body and his masterly control of his voice keeps the performance fresh. His pairing with Gang Dong-won also seems to have helped the latter turn in an especially engaging and charismatic performance. However in some ways the actor who most stole the limelight was Goh Chang-seok (Director Bong in Rough Cut) who plays a Vietnamese gang boss. Although surely it will be obvious to native speakers of Vietnamese that this is a Korean actor, many local viewers were fooled, at the same time as Goh's delivery and comic timing produced storms of laughter.

 

 

 

Local commentators have noted this film's resemblance to a string of earlier big-budget North Korea-themed blockbusters that scored big at the box office (especially Shiri, JSA, Silmido, Taegukgi, and Welcome to Dongmakgol). Like the earlier works, Secret Reunion includes humanistic portrayals of North Korean characters and focuses on individuals caught in the middle of powerful, impersonal political forces. But this film is on a refreshingly smaller scale, restricting itself to just two protagonists and devoting more time to characterization. The ending may not contain any strong insight into Korea's unique political situation, but the film's characters will endure.

 

 

 

Directed by	Jang Hun
Produced by	Showbox Rubicon Pictures
Written by	Jang Min-seok
Starring	Song Kang-ho Kang Dong-won
Cinematography	Oh Seung-chul
Distributed by	Showbox
Release date(s)	February 4, 2010 (2010-02-04)
Running time	116 minutes
Country	South Korea
Language	Korean
Admissions	5,459,295

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://koreanfilm.org/kfilm10.html#secretreunion