Comwayon
A Disappointing Continuation
FrogGlace
In other words,this film is a surreal ride.
Derry Herrera
Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.
Brennan Camacho
Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.
lastliberal
Dong-Kun Jang (Nowhere to Hide) is an angry man. If you have seen the documentary Seoul Train, you would know why. He tries to escape North Korea through China to get to South Korea, but is deceived by everyone. He sees his parents slaughtered, and is separated from his sister. The only thing on his mind is revenge against both North and South.He manages to get some nuclear material and has a brilliant plan.Director Kyung-Taek Kwak keeps the movie moving as Jung-Jae Lee is called upon to track down the angry man and retrieve the material. He finds his long-lost sister and uses he as bait.There is more than an action film here. It takes that to place in the US, but there is Korean romance buried withing the film. Too bad there was not enough time for more.
Nav Hussain
One of the biggest high budget movie's made in Korea. Basically it's Korean style Bourne movie. The cast are brilliant including Jung-Jae Lee (City of the Rising Sun) and Dong-Kun Jang(2009: Lost Memories). Great location's however most of the budget must have been used for this, there are very few action scene's, don't be expecting amazing shoot out's or high flying unrealistic kung fu fight's. Do expect a film with characterisation and a bit of depth. Overall it's a film which will be enjoyable to watch if you are patient enough to last the first half hour. Ifg anyone has seen 'A Bittersweet life' by Ji-woon Kim you will enjoy this movie but it wont stand out as a classic but a stylish action movie.
John
Like "The Brotherhood of War (Tae Guk Gi)" and "Silmido" this movie touches upon the most sensitive and emotional issue for Koreans while demonstrating an upgrade of the Korean film industry which has been exploding especially since "Swiri" was released in 1998.Great actors and actress, great performance and the script, but one of the few shortcomings was some background music which was not perfectly consistent with the theme of the movie. For those who are not familiar with the North-South issues, this movie may be confusing to categorize just as an action movie or one with more in-depth interpretation of the political issues.What viewers should notice though is that these days the South Korean filmmakers enjoy making controversial movies (such as those mentioned above), which reflects their cultural, artistic and political maturity; South Koreans or Americans are very often bad guys and North Koreans are often good guys or poor victims, left with no better choices. In other words, less and less stereotyping.In the scene where Sin (Jang Dong-Kun) meets his elder sister for the first time in 20 years... I'm telling you, their performance was simply amazing, especially Lee Mi-Yeon's. I even felt sorry for those who don't understand Korean perfectly, having only to depend upon the English subtitles which in no way convey the full meaning and nuance of the totally different Asian language. Obviously they speak in the movie with a very strong (but, of course, perfect) North-Korean accent (this is very impressive too), that particular scene was too outstanding to categorize the entire movie into any single genre.Depending on the DVD editions, in the last fighting scene between Sin and Kang where Sin says, "...the f***ed up thing is that we understand each other."(English subtitle) What it really means is their ironical situation that they speak the same language (Korean) even though they are enemies.With better and more consistent background music (and some other improvements not really worth mentioning), I would've given it a 9. (This does not mean that the entire background music sucked. I'm only pointing out those in the car chase and fighting/shooting scenes)
keymanh
Many of the tearjerkers and romantic dramas by Korean film-makers have definitely been appealing to many Asian movie fans. Winter Sonata, Autumn Fairy Tale, Lovers in Paris, First Kiss, just to name a few. Koran actors and actresses appeared in those movies have enthusiastically been accepted in Japan, Hongkong, China, Singapore and in other Asian countries. Jiwoo Choi, Yongjun Bae, Hyegyo Song, Bin Won, Jeongeun Kim, Shinyang Park, Jaewook Ahn, Byunghun Lee are such celebrities, or rather, idols in those countries.Bun it's quite a different story in the U.S., where 'a man carrying a big stick' is respected. They don't go much for some ticklish romantic episodes played by Asian performers.Typhoon is an answer to this situation. It has daring hoopla, alertness, conspiracy, betrayal, red-blooded revenge and heartbreaking family tragedy stemming from the tragedy of divided two Koreas. For Dongkun Jang, a North Korean escapee as a child, politics has no meaning at all. His parents were killed when his family were escaping from North Korea to South Korea seeking freedom, by way of China. He and his sister survived the massacre by the North Koreans, but separated---separated for 20 years. All he wants is to find his sister and save her from the hand of North Korean and Chinese 'bandits'. Any means justifies the end for him. He would gladly steal secret weapon from South Korea and the U.S. to trade his sister with it.His wrath and fury was well and timely expressed in his retort to his opponent: "Comrade, have you ever eaten human flesh?" Jungjae Lee, South Korean navy officer, has a mission to stop him and retrieve the weapon from his hand. Inevitably, the two has the fate to tackle with each other. But Jungjae Lee feels for him and says: "Tonight we will fight to the death, but in another life I would have liked to have been his friend." All the emotions and feelings are melted down to the electrifying scene when Dongkun Jang finally meets his sister and shouts: "(20 years ago) Didn't I tell you to just stay where you were!" Tight and tighter embraces follow.Fast change of sequences, realistic plot, almost zero-defect photography, compact movements of actors, especially those by Dongkun Jang and Jungjae Lee. Hey, you both are great, Jang and Lee! Not many goofs could be found in this film.