Film: The Man from Nowhere

Director: Jeong-beom Lee
Genre: Thriller
Source: South Korea (2010)
Rating: R
Location/Format: Netflix Instant Watch
Grade: A

Having just watched The Chaser earlier in the week, it's hard for me not to compare the two. So many similar elements: the loner hero (or anti-hero) at its heart, the mother involved in shady dealings who is put in harm's way, the daughter who becomes an innocent victim of the mother's lifestyle, the quest to save one or both of the damsels in distress, the occasionally shocking violence perpetrated over the course of the film. But while I have a feeling The Chaser might be the more complex filt man it's m--more moral ambiguities, fewer clear cut good guys, despite a plethora of bad guys, etc.--I think The Man from Nowhere was the more entertaining to watch. It's a little bit more Hollywood-glossy, with a more tragic and heroic figure at its hear, so it's also not quite as bleak, and it's a lot more stylish, with plenty of heroic moments, strong fight choreography, and flair.

The "pawnshop ghost"--Tae-sik Cha--lives a life of solitude, his only friend a young girl named So-mi, whose mother and everyone else calls garbage. The two form a shaky friendship, but when So-mi and her mother are abducted for the mother's role in a drug heist, Tae-sik (whose mysterious past gives him a particular set of skills useful for this kind of thing) goes on a one-man war against the Chinese gang responsible. Sadistic killers, confused cops, organ harvesters, and Korean crime bosses all get involved, but Tae-sik continues on, as he realizes he really has nothing else to live for.

Revenge/redemption stories are nothing new for Korea, but they sure do them well. The film is helped a lot by Bin Won's performance as Tae-sik. He's stoic, but haunted, and Won allows the tragedy and desperation he feels in all his actions leak out through his eyes. That he's as effective in the fight sequences is another bonus. The film's cinematography is another strength. There are a lot of beautiful shots here--from rain soaked car chases to brightly lit criminal lairs to cramped and torturous spaces, but each scene and location has an element of clarity and even beauty to it. And when it gets into the fights--particularly the climactic knife fights toward the film's end--it's both terrible and awe-inducing to watch.

In the end, though other Korean revenge films might be better or more complex, The Man from Nowhere is perhaps the most enjoyable of the genre that I've seen. It has a bit of a sentimental heart at its core, and when dealing with such dark and disturbing subject matter, maybe that's not a bad thing.