The Man From Nowhere
- 119 Minutes. Rated R.
“I only live for today. I’ll show you just how @#$!ed up that can be.”
As I’ve said before, I’m a sucker for Korean revenge films (Netflix has even developed a category of them for me). Korean revenge films have a certain formula: it’s like a twisted Count of Monte Cristo. Something terrible happens to the main character who has to suffer. Then said person goes on a crazy spree of revenge with an M. Night Shyamalan twist. Although I’m still searching for one that blows me away like Chan Woo Park’s Oldboy, The Man from Nowhere was still fun to watch.
Cha Tae-sik (Bin Won) is a local pawn shop dealer in South Korea. He’s quiet and unsociable, (a lot like me on weekends). He doesn’t make new friends, except with his troublesome neighbor, a young girl named Jeong So-mi (Sae-ron Kim). Her nickname is garbage because her prostitute mother, Hyo-jeong, (Hyo-seo Kim) kicked a garbage can when she found out she was pregnant (the viewer sees later that she obviously deserves a Mother of the Year Award) So-mi’s resulting behavior is ignored both at home and at school. Tae-sik is the only person she doesn’t hate. When her mother steals from the wrong drug traffickers, she and So-mi are kidnapped. Tae-sik unknowingly pawned the drugs, and he is set up to be the fall guy in a drug bust.
They messed with the wrong guy. Tae-sik has a military past and a soft spot for So-mi. He begins to mercilessly track down the drug dealers, and leaves nothing in his wake. Meanwhile, the police are trying to track him down. Tae-sik must rescue So-mi before he is arrested. Yes, this movie plot sounds a lot like Taken, Man on Fire, and Leon:The Professional, but this one stands out because of its action sequences and character development. This movie has an amazing knife fight, where camera angles become first person in the middle, without being jarring. There’s also a crash through a window actually done by the actor. Although not as impressive as the hall fight from Old Boy, I can see the influences. It is something you will want to rewind and watch.
The relationship between So-mi and Tae-sik is heartwarming, without over the top sentimentality. So-mi has a tough life, and is looking for a friend. Tae-sik is trying to hide from his past, and doesn’t think he needs friends. So-mi gives him a reason to live again.
This movie is very dark (just how I like them). The bad guys, for the most part, are clear cut. The viewer roots for their deaths. They enslave children as meth makers and drug runners. When the children are of age, the bad guys harvest their organs into the black market. This movie is without the “Hollywood ending.” It’s a realistic portrayal of what happens when one man goes on a killing spree, even if it was justified.
The audience doesn’t know much about Tae-sik. He’s a man of few words, but any guy who fires an entire clip of rounds into a bullet proof windshield until he gets through, can be my savior any day. Bin Won has literally come from nowhere as an actor, since this movie, and has become a real Korean heart-throb. Who wouldn’t love a guy who would stop at nothing to get someone back?
