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The Age of Shadows (2016)
Mil-jeong (original title)
Director: Jee-woon Kim
Writers: Jee-woon Kim, Ji-min Lee
Cast: Byung-Hun Lee, Yoo Gong, Kang-ho Song
Genre: Action, Drama, Thriller
Language: Korean
This felt like a Korean version of a Hollywood block buster flick, with all the over the top gun fights and the silly 'pull off your toe that's just been shot' scene,...Didn't I just see a rotting finger being pulled off in The Shape of Water? That's why I say this feels like a Korean version of a popcorn flick, fun at times, but never deep.
I mean we really get no sense of the Japanese occupation and what it meant for Korea. Outside of a couple Japanese characters, it was like the film maker didn't even bother with the bigger picture of the occupation and the social consequences that it would bring.
Instead it plays out like a James Bond spy thriller, with the plot to turn a Korean police captain working for the Japanese, into a double agent, to smuggle explosives for the resistance fighters....That could have been fun, as there's nothing wrong with a movie made for entertainment, but at 2 hours 20 minutes this was too long, or at least it felt really long to me. Edit out 45 minutes and you'd have a fast paced, fun movie.
The last scene where the resistances sets off bombs at the Japanese/Korean officials party event, really made me hate the 'heroes' of the film. Because at the party there were many innocent people, young people singing, young women serving drinks...and they were all killed by the bomb blast. So at the end of the film, I feel like the resistance fighters are no better than the Japanese army who occupied their country, and I doubt that's the message the Korean film maker wanted to give.
Mil-jeong (original title)
Director: Jee-woon Kim
Writers: Jee-woon Kim, Ji-min Lee
Cast: Byung-Hun Lee, Yoo Gong, Kang-ho Song
Genre: Action, Drama, Thriller
Language: Korean
"During the late 1920s in Korea...Korean resistance fighters attempt to strike a blow at the occupying Japanese forces by smuggling explosives into a factory that's important to the Japanese. CR"
This felt like a Korean version of a Hollywood block buster flick, with all the over the top gun fights and the silly 'pull off your toe that's just been shot' scene,...Didn't I just see a rotting finger being pulled off in The Shape of Water? That's why I say this feels like a Korean version of a popcorn flick, fun at times, but never deep.
I mean we really get no sense of the Japanese occupation and what it meant for Korea. Outside of a couple Japanese characters, it was like the film maker didn't even bother with the bigger picture of the occupation and the social consequences that it would bring.
Instead it plays out like a James Bond spy thriller, with the plot to turn a Korean police captain working for the Japanese, into a double agent, to smuggle explosives for the resistance fighters....That could have been fun, as there's nothing wrong with a movie made for entertainment, but at 2 hours 20 minutes this was too long, or at least it felt really long to me. Edit out 45 minutes and you'd have a fast paced, fun movie.
The last scene where the resistances sets off bombs at the Japanese/Korean officials party event, really made me hate the 'heroes' of the film. Because at the party there were many innocent people, young people singing, young women serving drinks...and they were all killed by the bomb blast. So at the end of the film, I feel like the resistance fighters are no better than the Japanese army who occupied their country, and I doubt that's the message the Korean film maker wanted to give.