DELIVER US FROM EVIL
(director/writer:Won-Chan Hong; cinematographer: Kyung-pyo Hong; editor: Hyung-ju Kim; music: Mowg; cast: Hwang Jung-min (In-nam), Lee Jung-jae (Ray), Jung -min Park (Yoo-Yi), Moon Choi (Youngjoo), Park So-yi,(Yoo-min), Young-chang Song (Kim Chun-sung), Seo Young-joo (Choi Hee-seo); Runtime: 108; MPAA Rating: NR; producer: Chul-Yong Kim; CJ Entertainment/Well Go USA Entertainment; 2020-S. Korea-in Korean with English subtitles)
“It’s one of the better recent action pics.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
A familiar but well-done badass Korean action-thriller by Korean filmmaker Won-Chan Hong(“Office”). It’s a child kidnapping film about an evil gang of international child traffickers. It reunites the stars from New World (2013), Hwang Jung-Mina and Lee Jung-Jae, in a film written by Hong.
The ex-government assassin turned contract killer, In-nam (Hwang Jung-Min), does “one last job, ”assassinating a powerful Yakuza gangster in Tokyo for his employer in order so he has enough saved to retire and live peacefully in Panama. But a former lover (Choi Hee-Seo) from their days together with Korea’s intelligence before both were fired, called on him for help before slain, when her 9-year-old daughter (Park So-Yi ) is kidnapped in Bangkok. Initially reluctant to get involved, but he goes to Thailand to search for her when he learns that the brother of the man he just assassinated, the ruthless Ray the Butcher (Lee Jung-Jae), wants revenge against the Korean agency.
Just when you think you know where things are going, there are twists taking us on a different path. But it’s clear the enemies would somehow meet to settle things no matter how many twists, as the likeable In-nam confronts the unlikable Ray in the final act.
Hong stages magnificent action sequences (fist fights, knife fights, explosions and car chases) and at the same time keeps us emotionally involved in the characters. It’s one of the better recent action pics. Park Jung-min as Yui, the transgender Korean man appearing as a woman, living in Thailand as a nightclub performer, helps our contract killer hero find the missing girl, and is played with conviction. When onscreen Yui dominates it.
REVIEWED ON 6/13/2021 GRADE: B+