Depending on how you count, it's either Prologue or Half of the First Act (I'd say prologue), Lee Jong-pil’s North-to-South Korean defection adventure begins with considerable Pop entertainment value. Lee Je-hoon stars as a respected North Korean sergeant, nearing his ten year service quota, but meticulously plotting an escape to the South thru the DMZ. He’s worked out a detailed map of land mine placements, and now needs to take his chance before forecast rain storms move in and shift the bomb positions. Defection now or never. And weather’s not the only obstacle. He’s also being blackmailed by a fellow soldier who's on to his secret and desperate to visit family in the South. Sure enough, things quickly go south and the pair are quickly discovered and arrested. As filmmaking, so far, so good, in fact excellent! But once the two are separated by Koo Kyo-hwan’s politically-connected Major (he’s also a champion pianist though seems to prefer Je-hoon to Rachmaninoff), we quickly devolve into a series of neatly handled, but unlikely action sequences, impossible coincidences, and blind favors from our love struck Major. Heck, there’s even a surprise last second rescue by a group of female Nomadic warriors who roam the border lands and are currently looking for a relative who just happened to be held in a prison cell next to the tag-along blackmailer. Remember him? Je-hoon did, and picked up the poor guy to join in border dash. Too silly for words. And oddly made worse rather than better because Jong-pil proves so talented: pace, locations, eccentric acting choices that pay off, action chops; the works.
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: Just his fourth feature, director Lee Jong-pil’s definitely a guy to pay attention to.
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