Talju
Plots(1)
After completing his required decade of military service and being honored as a hero, a North Korean sergeant makes a sudden shocking attempt to defect to the South, risking life and limb for the chance to finally determine his own destiny. (Well Go USA Entertainment)
Reviews (2)
How did this anticipated Korean thriller turn out? Solid! I liked it better than the recent Hijack 1971. Run Away was one of the anticipated South Korean films, it's quite a substantial and unconventional theme that I was looking forward to, and it's gripping, suspenseful and quite clever. The main character is a smart North Korean army sergeant who is even hailed as a hero, but he wants to make a shocking decision: to escape to the south for a better life! And so every day he secretly gets out of the base and maps out his surroundings, surveys the minefield, makes the perfect escape plan, but as it happens in such films, nothing goes according to plan and the main character goes from one crazy situation to another, and when you start thinking “this is hell, he's not getting out of this one”, there's a twist! The film has a brisk pace, the shorter running time of 90 minutes makes it really move along nicely, the main character is entertaining, all the situations are nicely suspenseful and clever, and the villain played by Koo Gyo-Hwan, a ruthless Major, is also great. The final half hour is more or less a duel between two men, with one risking his life to cross the line and the other doing everything he can to stop him. The highlight for me was the scene in the car, it was so intense! And the Korean Nomads were a delight! 7/10.
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A thriller about a North Korean soldier who tries to defect to the south and about the ruthless army officer who tries to capture him even though the two men are former friends. But because of that friendship and other supporting and peripheral characters, the story contains vague motifs and storylines that prevent the plot from focusing on the escape (whose failure will result in certain death) as much as it should. Some of the very well-rendered moments are memorable (the opening passage and the “secret mission in a stolen car”), while others are too watered down or not very believable. As genre entertainment, however, Escape is well made (and with bold, pulsating music) if you set aside some of the ridiculous ideas about the situation in North Korea including, for example, the women’s partisan corps.
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