Tuesday 27 March 2012

The Yellow Sea ★★★★☆



Director Na Hong-jin's 2009 debut The Chaser, along with the works of Joon-ho Bong, Park Chan-wook and Kim Ji-woon helped thrust the South Korean movie industry into the consciousness of Western audiences. However, a recent spate of mediocre and uninspired genre films has started to flood the market, threatening to stunt this Eastern revolution. Thankfully Hong-jin's The Yellow Sea (2010) is an original and intense revenge thriller that looks set to breathe new life into a stagnant industry.

Kim Gu-nam (Ha Jung-woo) is a taxi driver struggling to make a living in the Yanbian - a Korean populated region which borders Russia, China and North Korea. Those who live in the area are known as 'Joseonjoks' - a derogatory term given by those in South Korean as many of these Yanbian natives end up fleeing the region to find work in the south. Gu-nam's wife is one of these illegal immigrants; however he’s failed to hear from her since her departure - lumbered with the 60000 Yuan debt acquired for her visa and seemingly unable to pay it back to the vicious loan sharks who follow his every move.

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