'Assassination': Excellent film seamlessly combining Korean history and action

By Shim Sun-ah

SEOUL, July 15 (Yonhap) -- Choi Dong-hoon is considered one of the most popular and influential directors in the local film industry. Debuting with "The Big Swindle" in 2004, he has had big commercial success with every new film - such as "Tazza: The High Rollers," "Woochi" and "The Thieves" -- regardless of mixed reviews from critics.

So there also was a mixed outlook on his upcoming film because the master of the action-crime thriller genre has never made a historical film. Especially one set in the grim era when Korea was a colony of Japan from 1910 to 1945.

It turned out to be an excellent film that well combines the massiveness of the traditional historical film genre and Choi's own polished directing skills and sense of humor.

The new film "Assassination" is set partly in Shanghai and partly in Seoul during the 1930s. Yeom Seok-jin (Lee Jung-jae), the police chief of the provisional Korean government in exile in Shanghai, brings in An Ok-yun (Jun Ji-hyun), a female sniper in the Korean independence army in Manchuria, and two male members of the army jailed in China (Cho Jin-woong and Choi Duk-mun) for an assassination plot.

Their mission is to kill the commander of the Japanese troops in Korea and a pro-Japanese business tycoon named Kang In-guk (Lee Gyoung-young) in Seoul. But a ruthless paid assassin nicknamed "Hawaii pistol" (Ha Jung-woo) begins to hunt them down as soon as the assassination squad leaves for Seoul.

The whole film is tightly woven dramatic action that presents a lot of characters and a lot of ideas. The involvement of the contract assassin and the emergence of a traitor among the independence fighters add suspense to the story.

While "The Thieves" lost its balance as screenwriter/director Choi tried to cram too much -- complex plots, family, romance and even elements of Hong Kong noir films -- into the 135-minute running time, "Assassination" progresses more smoothly with a clear focus on the assassination plot.

Even though it also has an all-star cast like "The Thieves," Choi didn't repeat the error of allocating much of the running time to introducing each character.

A superlative performance by the cast is another strength of the film.

Jun, who became one of the hottest Korean Wave stars after her TV series "My Love from the Stars" became a big hit in China last year, successfully played a well-rounded character as a fearsome and strong-minded sniper that has weak, feminine and lovely elements at the same time.

She and other major stars -- Lee Jung-jae, Ha Jung-woo, Oh Dal-soo -- are in good harmony with each other in portraying people who endured the hard times of the 1930s in their own ways.

Although the movie tells the untold stories of Korean independence fighters who sacrificed themselves for the nation, it still is a commercial film from beginning to end. In other words, it's fun. Intriguing camera shots and action sequences and the delicate and splendid reenactment of the Shanghai and Seoul streets of the era makes the film worth seeing.

The movie opens in local theaters next Wednesday.

sshim@yna.co.kr
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