V.I.P.

A great Korean spy detective movie that starts as a crime movie and ends up as a quite good thriller. I liked the originality of the long fingers of espionage forces which reach not only to their northern neighbors but over the Indian Ocean to America. To watch a story of a serial killer while wondering about which organization would benefit the most from getting their hands on him – that hasn’t happened to me in a long time. The Koreans made up their story perfectly and the ending was absolutely thrilling. Of course there are a few moments that are a bit more emotional than they should be – that is typical for the Koreans. Nevertheless, while watching the ending scenes I felt like I was watching an old Asian thriller like Infernal Affairs. It was a great movie which saves the action till the end to knock you off your feet. I even enjoyed the cast including the psycho who enjoyed his role probably more than he should have. But even that eventually helped this movie’s atmosphere. In my opinion, it was a great movie experience and another successful attempt of South Korea at western film making. (16/09/2019)

The decent director Park Hoon-Jeong didn't make me too happy this time and it hurts when my favourite Jang Dong-Gun from the blockbuster No Tears for the Dead is available. However, it's worth noting the new discovery, Lee Jong-Suk, who portrays a pretty sleazy metro-sexual serial killer, but his spree ends a quarter of the way through the film and then it's just South Korea, North Korea and the American Interpol arguing about who gets to take over, which I didn't much enjoy. At the beginning the film looked very dirty and brutal, with scenes of a murdered family in a house and one decent murder by strangling a naked girl with nylons, but that's the end of it. No other action is shown, apart from the final shootout in a building, which was fine. The story is not engaging enough, the suspense is also lacking and there is no twist, there is not much to praise. I was expecting much more, at least it was nice to see Peter Stormare in a brief role. Disappointing. 60% (15/12/2017)