Movies like this one are the reason, why i nowadays watch korean thriller and action movies instead of the usual Hollywood productions (Fast & Furious, Transformers, sequel after Sequel, remake after remake...).
The plot of this movie isn´t new or original. A professional killer falls in love with a woman and gets a conscience. He wants to stop killing people, wants to quit his "job" and gets him and his sweetheart in big trouble...
What IS new and original is the realisation of this plot. The killer is neither a lone wolf like "Leon" nor the stereotypical psychopath. He is played by Ji-seob So as an average, hard working employee, who goes to work everyday like everybody else. The difference between Ji and other employees is that his workplace is just a sham company, behind a secret door the protagonist and his colleagues meet the boss to plan their discrete and deadly assignments.
Killing people is just a job for Ji. He kills some people at work, after work he irons his shirt for the next day, he lifes a quiet life and is looking forward to his next promotion. One of the great aspects of the movie is to show the callous routine of the young protagonist and his colleagues, going to work everyday, killing people everyday... It´s just business.
Mi-yeon Lee plays an middle aged woman, who was a famous singer and the crush of Ji, when he was a kid. As they meet again, Ji falls in love with her again and wants to leave the company to start a new life. But he fails to protect her and her family from the company. She gets killed by company man after a shootout. Her death in front of her children is tragic and could not be more "anti-Hollywood".
Ji avenges her death in a fantastic gunfight, that i want to compare to the Hongkong action flicks from directors John Woo or Tsui Hark (Time and Tide). But every action sequence in this movie is excellent choreographed, especially the amazing scene, where Ji fights two company colleagues in a car...
The plot of this movie isn´t new or original. A professional killer falls in love with a woman and gets a conscience. He wants to stop killing people, wants to quit his "job" and gets him and his sweetheart in big trouble...
What IS new and original is the realisation of this plot. The killer is neither a lone wolf like "Leon" nor the stereotypical psychopath. He is played by Ji-seob So as an average, hard working employee, who goes to work everyday like everybody else. The difference between Ji and other employees is that his workplace is just a sham company, behind a secret door the protagonist and his colleagues meet the boss to plan their discrete and deadly assignments.
Killing people is just a job for Ji. He kills some people at work, after work he irons his shirt for the next day, he lifes a quiet life and is looking forward to his next promotion. One of the great aspects of the movie is to show the callous routine of the young protagonist and his colleagues, going to work everyday, killing people everyday... It´s just business.
Mi-yeon Lee plays an middle aged woman, who was a famous singer and the crush of Ji, when he was a kid. As they meet again, Ji falls in love with her again and wants to leave the company to start a new life. But he fails to protect her and her family from the company. She gets killed by company man after a shootout. Her death in front of her children is tragic and could not be more "anti-Hollywood".
Ji avenges her death in a fantastic gunfight, that i want to compare to the Hongkong action flicks from directors John Woo or Tsui Hark (Time and Tide). But every action sequence in this movie is excellent choreographed, especially the amazing scene, where Ji fights two company colleagues in a car...