The Man From Nowhere

By Zentilack

Summary

Cha Tae-sik (Won Bin) is the owner of a small pawn shop and prefers to keep to himself.  A young neighbor girl named Jeong So-mi (Kim Sae-ron) is intent on spending time with him and he quietly tolerates her presence.  But when So-mi's mother gets in trouble with drug dealers, and the young girl gets kidnapped, Tae-sik will let nothing stop him from bringing her back.

What I Expected

The extent of my knowledge of this film was limited to the tiny summary that could be found on Instant Netflix.  I'd never heard of this film or any of the people involved in it's production.  It sounded like a cool story with potential for some decent action, but I've become enough of a cynic these days to be highly suspicious of movies that sound cool.  Still, it seemed to be rated highly by other Netflix users, so I figured on a slightly above average action movie. 

The Bad

It could be the style and mannerisms peculiar to Korean acting (or rather, Asian acting in general), but the characterization of a few of the players will likely seem a bit off to a Western viewer.  Now, while I've not seen very many Korean films, I have seen a number of Japanese and Chinese movies, so the acting doesn't seem that odd to me.  I freely admit this is really a small thing, but some Westerners that are not accustomed to those sorts of mannerisms and characters will almost certainly tilt their head a bit at these moments.  There is one character in particular, one of the policemen, who really personifies this in a way that seems almost goofy and out of place to a Western eye.

The story, when everything else is stripped away, is really pretty simple and one we've heard before.  The loner unexpectedly finds himself caring about someone else, that person is placed in danger, and the loner has to use his abilities to save their new-found friend.  Some will find the very idea cliche, and honestly, it kinda is when you look at it like this.

This last critique is more a matter of personal taste for the viewer.  There's quite a bit of colorful language thrown around.  Considering that it's drug dealers and organ traffickers, it fits, but there you go.   There is also a scene where the naked body of a woman is found (her body shown on screen for a few seconds), and it's obvious the bad guys harvested her organs to sell on the black market.  Some might find it a bit much to see (honestly, I don't think it was necessary to have it shown, but that's just me).

Also, the movie is in Korean with English subtitles.  I know some out there hate subtitles, so here's your warning.

The Good

The film has a collection of actors and a director/writer (Lee Jeong-beom) who are, as far as I can tell, fairly inexperienced, having very few films under their belts.  Even so, they do an amazing job.  They took a pretty simple story and give every aspect of it their all.  The effort really shines through and it's easy to become invested in what's happening.  The cinematography by Lee Tae-yoon is excellent, with interesting environments and characters clearly portrayed on screen (it's not too dark, the framing isn't weird, no crazy zooms or obnoxious shaky cam, that sort of stuff). 

So-mi (Kim Sae-ron)

Ten year old Kim Sae-ron is, surprisingly enough, pretty good and genuinely likeable, adorable even (I don't generally care for child actors, so that's high praise from me).  Won Bin is a fine leading man and the little things he does really add to his character, not to mention that he performs very admirably as an action star. 

Speaking of Won Bin, his character worried me at first glance.  When he showed up with his hair in his face and hardly saying a word, I thought he was gonna do some sort of "woe is me" schtick, playing his part like a block of wood (or like a weepy girl).  He does have a dark past that is revealed throughout the movie, but thankfully he does show some emotion, if subdued.  He's a character that has feelings that you can tell are roiling beneath the surface, but they are tightly controlled, only escaping when something really gets to him.  You can connect with him pretty quickly.  Later on, when he cuts his hair off, you know he means business.

Get a haircut, Tae-sik!

The action scenes are great, the kind of action I've been wanting for a while.  While the editor sometimes gets a little too overzealous with cutting to different angles for a fight, you can pretty much always tell what's going on.  You can see who's winning, who's getting shot or stabbed, and you can tell who's doing it.  Whoever was in charge of choreographing the combat was good (I couldn't find a name on IMDB and the ending credits were in Korean).  The combat starts off relatively tame, but each battle escalates things until you hit the really brutal ending confrontation.  It's not gory, nobody's guts are spilling all over the place, but the hits are hard and satisfying.

I'm also pleased to say that very little in this film was done with computer graphics, and where it was added it wasn't painfully out of place.  There were quite a few decent stunts and, as I said before, the up close combat was well choreographed and acted.  There was a really great action shot where Tae-sik (Won) jumps out a window and the camera follows him down a story to the ground.  It was amazing and had me wondering how they did it the first time watching.

Overall Thoughts

I really didn't expect this to be much better than average going in, but The Man From Nowhere really exceeded my expectations.  It took a simple premise and not only did it competently, but did it well.  The acting was good, the action was solid, and I was invested in the characters and what was going to happen to them.  It's not a perfect film, by any stretch, but it's really good.

If you like action movies, even casually, I highly recommend you see this (buy or rent).  I, for one, am putting it on my buy list.  (I don't think I need to say this, but this is not for the kiddies)

The Man From Nowhere is available on Instant Netflix.  Oddly enough, the DVD is more expensive than the Blu-Ray on Amazon.  $17 for DVD, $15 for BR.  Weird...