IslandGuru Who payed the critics

LastingAware The greatest movie ever!

Tedfoldol everything you have heard about this movie is true.

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Madfigs Set in 1920s Japanese-occupied Korea, "The Age Of Shadows" depicts the story of a band of motley resistance fighters staging an act of defiance through navigating the hurdles of acquiring resources, of fending off turncoat pursuers, and of exposing a mole infiltration. The storyline employs the oft-used wartime device of a greatly outnumbered, improbable challenger bucking the overwhelming presence of an oppressor by sheer wit and grit, and, in parts of the telling, exploits the device to great effect.Able acting by the principal players and a well-sequenced cat-and-mouse confrontation aboard a rolling train help to deliver a compelling tale in the latter half of the film. Set, costuming, color grading and grand cinematography further effectively transport the viewer's eye. Production value is high.The picture falters in the opening half through a pieced series of scenes or bits of dialogue which recurrently feel contrived and leave the viewer questioning, for example, how this character or that one transported himself or a proxy with such ease to the doorstep of another. The slower first-hour pace, with which some other reviewers take issue, is not a concern, it builds the suspense. Rather it is that the scenes feel too pat. Perhaps through the large number of location transitions, footage which would have better supported the development of a scene was cut, and through inadept editing, several which should have gone to cutting room floor were left in--the extra ending, for one, which clarifies destination of the other half of the explosives, seems unnecessary and adds nothing to the story's impact. The white-curtained strangling and stabbing of the preening man upstairs at the cocktail target, to name just another, also does not advance the story and seems extraneous.Other distractions, some minor, include some of the lighting at night which feels artificial and staged, head hair which does not appear to grow or even become mussed after weeks in jail, rolling stock which, from the views inside, feels few in number (that is, the train seems short) relative to the prolonged time after which antagonists finally identify protagonists, and mediocre performances by some of the supporting players.The film is at its best when focused at length on a particular scene and when there is action. Better editing and richer dialogue, even pregnant quiet, in place of the frequently changing and, for example, unconvincing and daft drinking scenes, could have sent this otherwise engaging story over the top.================================================================Postscript:To help me determine whether to pass two-plus hours watching Shadows, I skimmed three or four of the IMDb viewer-submitted write-ups before my viewing, and they were fully informative. After the viewing, I recalled, among other comments, a reference to sepia in regards to the processing, but this description did not seem entirely accurate to me, and so after I wrote, revised and closed my thoughts above to any further edits, but before posting my review, I Googled these terms all together: the age of shadows Jee-woon Kim color grading. And seven hits down the list, this link was returned: "Foreign Contenders: Cloak-And-Dagger Thriller The Age of Shadows Has Kim Jee-woon Channeling His Inner Patriot," by Carlos Aguilar, December 12, 2016.It is a superbly concise and insightful interview from a resource unknown to me, MovieMaker, with the director, Kim Jee-woon. In it he addresses the aforementioned color grading and the nighttime lighting I criticized (the set-up the director describes is precisely what I was picturing, and my recollection of it centered in particular around a sustained nighttime dolly close-up of the profile of lead Lee Jung-chool walking in the street: the flat light on his face did not change one iota under any passing street lamps or light from nearby homes, it was as if there was a large soft box held some feet in front of and above his head and moved in sync with the tracking shot). He also discusses aspects of the financing and some of the equipment and logistics specifics, makes a curious offhand comment about Park Chan-wook's stand-out "The Handmaiden," and adds about himself this perceptive comment, "Conversation scenes are the most challenging to me, because it's about relaying your thoughts or your mind to the audience."If you enjoyed the film, the interview is a highly recommended, short read.

Leofwine_draca THE AGE OF SHADOWS is a cracking period thriller that comes to us courtesy of South Korea. The setting is the 1920s and it's a period of Japanese occupation, in which resistance members are doing their best to bring down the Japanese government. I'm not sure why some describe the plot as complicated, because this is straightforward stuff indeed, albeit dense. It is even predictable at times, but that matters little when the production values are so lush and refined. The film plays out a cat and mouse game between the Japanese and the resistance, told from the point of view of a man caught in the middle.There's very little to dislike about this expertly-directed movie from Kim Jee-woon, the man who previously made the likes of I SAW THE DEVIL and THE LAST STAND. The action scenes are fluid and the opening shot of the soldiers jumping from roof to roof is jaw-droppingly artistic and refined. The running time is a little overlong but there are some great set-pieces here in which the violence isn't skimped upon. The half-hour train interlude has rightly been marked out as the film's highlight, a masterwork in suspense that reminded me of the bar scene in INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS. The film's exemplary cast includes a cameoing Lee Byung-hun alongside TRAIN TO BUSAN's Gong Yoo and the always excellent Song Kang-ho.

MattBirk * This was South Korea's official submission for the Best Foreign Language Oscar of 2016. There were four, notable SK movies released in 2016 and this movie was the one officials felt was the best to submit....boy were they wrong. Both "The Handmaiden" and "The Wailing" are simply superior in just about every reguard.* The movie is not bad by any measure, it's technical merits (cinematography, acting, production design, etc) are all great. The movie has a great stoic, 1920s feeling to it. And Song Kang-ho is outstanding (no surprise here). This was clearly well planned and organized by top workers in SK. It just didn't have a strong story behind all the great acting and camera-work. * It's the story that feels just a tad underwhelming. It ends up going exactly where you expect it to (with a few MINOR surprises along the way). But right from the get go, you know where this one is heading. And it's this predictability and makes the 2 hours and 15 minutes feel a bit long. * When all's said and done, this is a good movie from South Korea, but not great. It's not among the all time greats (and boy there are a lot), and it's not even the best movie from South Korea in 2016. But if you are a fan of period dramas (this one is light on action), then this is something you should check out.

MisterWhiplash I have to wonder if director Kim Jee-Woon titled this film in some part after the Melville WW2 film Army of Shadows. This isn't to get all movie trivia on you all, rather it's to make a small point about how Jee-Woon is doing two things in The Age of Shadows and doing them well: making a sort of homage to films about resistance movements and espionage during wartime (in a way this makes this a war film, but the front-lines are often with a few people behind closed doors, or trying to find people on a train who are incognito, or sides being reversed, with torture on the table for the side with power to those captured), and at the same time it's Jee-Woon making a film about his own country's history, when Korea was occupied by Japan, which adds a personal dimension to it.While I'm sure if I was Korean I would have more of a connection to it - I actually didn't know as much about this history as I thought - knowing about other resistance and underground movements against occupying powers (and another film that comes to mind outside of Melville's film, which is much darker than this, is Inglourious Basterds) makes the drama palpable. Oh, and the actual conflicts and character dynamics pop every possible moments. It's a story about loyalty and honor, but also how difficult that really is: the point of view is mostly from Song Kang-Ho (remember him from Snowpiercer and The Host and other films by Bong Joon-Ho?), a Korean born officer for the Japanese police who was one years before part of the resistance against Japan, but has now gone to the side of conformity. But people underground, including Kim Woo-Jin who is wanted by the top Japanese police brass, see some potential in Hang-Ho's character, the conflict in him deep down, and look to "open his heart" to turn for them. Partially.This is a complex film, and I'm sure on a first screening a few plot points here and there or little scenes made it so that I'm also sure a second screening might clear up a few things (it's a long film too at 140 minutes, not unlike Army of Shadows, so it's kind of dense viewing - not a bad thing, just what it is). In this complexity the filmmaker, who also is the writer, finds a lot of strong thematic connections, how we as the audience can fill in the gaps that might be questioning on how or why characters decide to do things, the journey for Lee Jung-Chool as alright cop to gray-area level traitor, and it doesn't shy away from gruesome details and moments. It doesn't dwell on things like the torture scenes, when resistance fighters who are captured and given burning skewers or ripped-off finger-nails, but it's important to show enough of that so it impacts certain characters. At the same time the violence is brutal but cut quick (not too quick, of course), which also brings back to mind Basterds.What I mean to say going back to 'complex' is that you have to pay attention to it (you look at your phone while watching this for a second and you'll miss something, put it away, it's not that kind of movie - aside from that you'll miss the often exquisite filmmaking and those moments where the screws tighten like that entire sequence on the train that makes up a 20 minute chunk midway through). It treats its audience like adults who can take some very hard decisions from characters, and also how subtle cues can alert people to things, and yet at the same time there's even some humor here and there. When the main resistance guy gets introduced to Lee Jung-Chool, the way to make things a little less, uh, 'tense' is to go through an entire barrel of liquor. How this one minute of film is cut together, showing drink after drink tumbled down until the barrel is empty, is one of the funniest things this year - but, again, subtle-funny. It's more about character than anything else.This is at times a rough film, its twists and turns confronting your expectations and making you question what's going to come next, and other times bleak and depressing. But it all leads up to a place that is phenomenal in terms of its dramatic arc and how the director builds up the kind of palpable suspense that shows he's watched his share of The Godfather a thousand times (but he makes it his own, it's not aped to annoyance). He's so assured that he goes past being one of the most skillful directors in Korea right now; The Age of Shadows confirms after massively entertaining and incredibly dark efforts like The Good, the Bad, the Weird and I Saw the Devil as basically someone in the entire WORLD that should be cherished. This is a remarkable film, and one of the better, more harrowing efforts of 2016.