Review for The Man From Nowhere

Introduction

A cut down DVD-R means that I don't have to bother with the technicals in this review, and can just get down to the nitty-gritty of the content. Mind you, I do hope the retail disc offers a little more than just a movie that autoplays when you put the disc in. A menu would be nice, but at the very least, The Man From Nowhere deserves a 5.1 soundtrack to properly bring across the action. I just got the film in stereo, although fortunately with a 2.35:1 anamorphic transfer free of the pesky timecodes or watermarks that some companies are apt to put on their screeners. That at least allowed me to enjoy an action film that has swept the board at the Korean Film Awards, revitalised the Korean film industry, and firmly announced to the world that there is a lot more to Korean cinema than just Park Chan Wook.


So-mi doesn't have an easy life. Her mother is an exotic dancer with a heroin addiction, so she's often left to her own devices. Nicknamed 'Garbage' she doesn't have a lot of friends. In fact she only has one, the reclusive pawnbroker Tae-shik, who everyone tells her to avoid. Tae-shik practically hides away from the world, and the rumours around him suggest that he has plenty to hide. So-mi's mother tells her that he's a child molester, and Tae-shik goes out of his way not to endear himself to anyone. Yet through sheer determination and force of personality, So-mi begins to form a friendship with him.


And then So-mi's mother steals some heroin from a bunch of gangsters who were using the nightclub where she works as a place to deal. The gangsters come looking for the merchandise, and take So-mi and her mother instead. Given how much stuff both mother and daughter pawn to stay afloat, it isn't long before they are kicking down Tae-shik's door as well. They make a deal with Tae-shik. He'll see So-mi and her mother again if he does one little delivery job for them. But it's a set-up, and he's soon caught between a rival gang and the police, and framed for a crime he didn't commit. Having been double-crossed, Tae-shik is determined to find So-mi his own way, and it turns out that he did have something to hide. Both the drug dealers and the police are going to wish they'd never learned what it was…

Conclusion

I remember when I was a kid that action movies used to be rated 18. You hardly see that now, as studios insist on maximising cinema attendances, and action movies are aimed at the 12 to 15 age ranges. But an 18 rated action movie meant action that was bloody, relentless, gory, and with visible consequences. It was in your face and close up, it was stuff that skirted the boundaries of good taste, and tested the patience of the censors. Modern action movies may have the stunts, the CGI and the choreography, but they always sanitise the action, they cut away at the crucial moment, they deny us the consequences. The bad guy may get his comeuppance, but you don't see the look in his eyes as his guts are ripped out. On the other hand, the modern action movie really does have the edge on the old muscle-bound eighties actioners in terms of realism. Yes, they do cut away from the gory stuff, and we do avoid the consequences, but ever since Jack Bauer and 24, we've had action heroes that look like everyday Joes, fighting in ways that are intense, fast paced, and actually look like they might work in the real world. The action movie has entered the era of Jason Bourne, and that has rewritten the rules for action cinema.


The Man From Nowhere is what an 18 rated Jason Bourne movie would look like, but turned up to eleven. Wow! Was that intense! I haven't had such a good time with an action film in years. The Man From Nowhere delivers a relentless torrent of action imagery the like of which has either been absent from our screens for too long, or has never actually been seen before. It's a classic revenge movie, with Tae-shik going hell for leather to rescue So-mi from a bunch of evil, evil gangsters, and heaven help anyone, good guy or bad, who gets in his way. The difference is in the action, which is Jason Bourne intense, up close and personal, inventive and blazingly fast paced, coupled with a blood and guts visual excess that harks back to the action cinema of my youth. There's a knife fight in this movie that was so fast that my eyes couldn't keep up, and so brutal that I swear I actually whimpered while I was watching it.


Action alone would quickly dull the experience, but where The Man From Nowhere excels is in the performances, especially the central pair of Tae-shik and So-mi. Bin Won as Tae-shik gives an outstanding performance as a man running from his past, traumatised and shell-shocked into becoming a recluse, but one whose cold exterior gradually begins to thaw as he is befriended by So-mi. Sae-ron Kim gives a heart-warming and charmingly precocious performance as the little girl, and the two give the film an emotional heart that really draws the viewer into the story, gives all the action a meaning and extra urgency. I have to say that I did find the twist at the ending a little telegraphed, but I don't mind. If the film had actually given the ending that it tried to suggest, there would have been riots in the cinemas.


The Man From Nowhere is the most intense action film I have seen in years. It's bloody brilliant, in every sense. Of course the DVD-R is no way to accurately judge, but I seem to have got off lucky with the image quality. If the retail disc is even better than this, than it should be a choice purchase. I hope that it gets a 5.1 audio track of some sort. Actually, the cinematography in this film is such that it could really use a Blu-ray release. Hint, hint…