Shiri (2002)

Although the South Korean Action thriller Shiri was released over a decade ago, the film has lost none of its poignancy, influence, or adrenaline charged suspense. Despite been hailed as the movie that defeated Titanic at the South Korean box office, occasionally this fact appears difficult to fathom, in that Titanic is a film that continuously makes coherent sense, while Shiri suffers from a number of anomalies and issues within its plot. During one scene, a convoy makes its way out from a tunnel. A couple of shots later, the tunnel has strangely disappeared, and I personally have my doubts that such a phenomenon frequently occurs in reality. During another scene, a recording device miraculously makes its way from one location to another, without so much as an explanation. These are two of several instances that don't entirely make sense, though if you put these small addendum's aside, Shiri is a feature that, although it isn't excellent, proves to be two hours of good entertainment.What this feature does best is amplify the tension, the final confrontation been so nail-bitingly suspenseful, you will quite literally hold your breath. The violence is continuously prominent, with a considerable amount of blood spurting out from bodily wounds, the level of causalities often appearing rather astronomical. Action scenes often involve massive shoot-outs, rather than physical confrontations, although when these occur they are very American in nature, and contain no stylized fighting. The camera work during these instances is very frenetic, and it can occasionally be difficult to ascertain what the audience is supposed to be focused upon. On more than one occasion, a small enemy insertion team is capable of defeating a wealth of South Korean soldiers who simply drop like flies, though I suspect real combatants would have greater capability than those displayed here, who seem humiliatingly incompetent in order for the story to continue.The film begins with a secret North Korean assassination unit, who are been ruthlessly trained to weed out the weak and find only the most proficiently capable. The most well respected of them all is Lee Bang-hee, an outstanding sniper, who is later responsible for the deaths of many high ranking politicians and intellectuals after covertly entering South Korea.Jong-won Yu (Suk-kyu Han) the agent in charge of the investigation into Bang-hee, alongside his partner, Jang-gil Lee (Kang-ho Song), both of whom work for South Korea's intelligence service, find themselves closing in on her. But the situation begins to outrageously take a turn for the worse, when North Korea's 8th Special Forces steals a mountainous load of CTX, a liquid chemical explosive, the combined amount having the capacity to wipe Seoul off the face of the planet.Continuously one step ahead of those vying to apprehend them, Yu begins to suspect that a mole is buried inside the intelligence service, however when the only other two people who know of the investigation are his partner and his boss, the list of suspects is slim. As trust begins to waver between the partnership and the situation intensifies, a series of questions begin to push the plot forward: How are the North Korean Special Forces involved with Bang-hee? Are the North Koreans, who are petitioning for peace, aware of what is happening? And will the intelligence service work everything out in time? But, with every step that agent Yu takes towards his goal of apprehending his target, the more he distances himself from his fiancé, Myung-hyun Lee (Yunjin Kim), a beautiful young woman with an avid fascination for fish.Fish themselves have a crucial element to play in the film, metaphorically articulating the differences between the South and the North, whilst also representing love, the Kissing Gourami, a species that cannot live without their paramour, that kiss their partner as often as they fight, reflecting the relationship that Myung-hyun and Yu have. The romance is efficaciously incorporated into the plot, which seamlessly moves from an action scene, to a melodramatic one, though additional information would have been beneficial in further establishing much of their history.Frequently entertaining, and beneficially aided by the accompanying score (which has a slight similarity to Armageddon), Shiri does occasionally suffer from predictability, and those familiar to films of this genre may determine the directionality of the plot before it officially unfolds. The film's conclusion seems to have been deliberately exaggerated for increased emotional affect, though a number of alternate possibilities could have ended the feature in an equally entertaining fashion.Despite a few aforementioned issues, Shiri is a sometimes funny, sometimes sad, but frequently action packed thriller, that deserves to be viewed.

(Yeah I know the song is "You Really Got Me" but I couldn't think of a witty title)The posters and DVD cover are deceptive. Contrary to the image of a hot chick in a sexy slit dress holding a gun, this is not a sexy femspy flick. In fact you never get a good look at the female assassin until the very end; the story is completely from the point-of- view of two investigative agents trying to catch her, with very little info.So you'd think this is a whodunnit mystery, right? Not really that either. What you get is sortofa action love story with some nice political themes. When I say it's a love story, it's not just a standard boy-meets-girl thing, but it's actually an interesting triangle which is 1 part romance (a detective and a fish store girl) and 1 part "bromance" (detective and his buddy).All of this is set against the backdrop of a terrorist plot to blow up things & kill people, and that itself is set against the backdrop of political unrest between North & South Korea. There's a lot going on, and the 2 hr movie flies by without a boring moment. In fact it could've easily been an epic miniseries with all its interesting subplots, themes & messages.As an uninformed American, I thought it was a pretty good flick. But I feel like in order to get the full power, you'd need to be more familiar with the whole division between N & S Korea, why it happened, and how culturally & economically different the two countries are. Sorta like a non-American would have to learn up on the US Civil War before truly appreciating "Gone with the Wind". But in "Shiri" they do a pretty decent job of covering the backstory so I'm not complaining.The title "Shiri" is not the name of the assassin, as you might imagine, but actually it's the name of a type of fish that supposedly spawns in a different stream before returning to its "homeland". Throughout the movie we get similar metaphors aimed at the reunification of Korea, and indeed the whole plot centers around that idea.So with that in mind, the movie takes an interesting viewpoint showing both sides of the story (good guys & bad guys), and although the audience's sympathy is mostly with the "good guys", the point is that the 2 sides are not so different as you'd think.Symbolism, in particular fish symbolism, is very prominent. In between action scenes, there's a lot to think about. And of course I imagine the original Korean language version packs even more meaning. The subtitles seem a little inadequate sometimes.Like all Korean movies I've seen, this is really violent. But it's actually one of the tamer ones, with most of the violence being gunfire, no gross-out torture scenes or anything. Although we do see someone's head explode in lovely splattervision. Haha, that one was totally unnecessary too... but really awesome just the same!There's not much comedy in this film. It pretty much sticks to the point with minimal diversions."Shiri" is a well-justified use of your time. Imagine "Die Hard" (action) with a dash of "In the Line of Fire" (detective thriller) combined with "Black Sunday" (political intrigue) and a dash of romance & bromance, there you have it.

This Korean spy thriller centers on an assassin from North Korea (Kim Yoon-jin from Lost) and a team of special forces (the leader is Choi Min-sik from Oldboy) that hijacks an shipment of a new type of explosive. Two members of the South Korean counter-terrorism unit (one of whom is played by Song Kang-ho, who has been in JSA, Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance, Lady Vengeance, and The Host) must track them down before they blow up Seoul. There is a good mix of drama and action here. One of the South Korean agents is engaged, but she doesn't know what he does for a living. The other is obsessed with finding Hee, the assassin. There are some nice running gun fights with hand-held camera work that emphasized the chaos. I really would have liked to see at least one decent car chase, though. Well acted all around and the direction by Kang Je-gyu (Tae Guk Gi), who also wrote the script, was very solid. There is one very sudden twist at the end that really makes you take notice and that really makes the film more than your standard actioner.

Typically, I hate American Hollywood action films. Nine times out of ten you will find yourself immersed in the same plot, the exact same characters, and an overabundance of explosions when the focus should be on learning more about the characters. Our focus when making Hollywood action films is completely skewed. We could take a page from the ways that other countries make action films. While most will think that they are all made the same (conflict, girl, explosion, tense ending), I witnessed a completely different representation of the action genre with Swiri. While it wasn't perfect, it was a stride in the right direction giving us human characters, realistic tension, with a plot synopsis that may make any teacher think it was plagiarizing a film called The Rock. While the similarities may be great, where The Rock missed, Swiri gladly picked up and ran with it creating a challenging film that was two parts intense drama, one part action … a great recipe never used in Hollywood action.Swiri takes amazing strides towards redefining the action genre by giving us flawed characters. This is a concept missing in Hollywood action films. When I think of movies like Air Force One, Armageddon, or The Rock (aka Michael Bay-isms), you typically have a centralized character that could be shot at a million times, but never be hit. Who else is tired of these films? In Swiri, thankfully, we are granted a rare opportunity to see actual heroes that are flawed. Heroes that either have 1) emotional baggage or 2) more trouble in their lives than just bullets whizzing in their direction. Heroes that actually make us perpetuate some form of emotion at the end of the film, not just the hidden Hollywood "hurray for America" subliminal message. Heroes that make us stay on our toes wondering if they truly are as "good" as we have conceived them to be. Again, in your typical Hollywood film, if Harrison Ford is your heroine and top billing, you already know he will survive the end and be the ultimate "good" guy. In Swiri, director Je-gyu Kang keeps us second-guessing ourselves. Who is the "mole" in the system? Until the final, explosive moments of the film, we honestly have no clue, which leads us to a very emotional showdown at the end. It is these types of characters that keep us glued to our films, instead of getting a bite to eat in the middle and still visualizing how the ending will conclude.With such strong characters, you honestly didn't need a detailed story with Swiri. From the music to the indiscreet plot, many cinephiles will argue that this was nothing more than a completely plagiarized version of The Rock. In some cases they will be right, but in others they will be utterly wrong. Outside of the characters (which are the staple of this film), the less CGI graphics really keep you focused on the human drama surrounding this picture. The conflict between the two countries is a dominant element surrounding these characters. It isn't just terrorists trying to disrupt peace, it is a cause … a reason for the destruction. The action is suspenseful and tactfully realistic. I enjoyed seeing blood whenever villains were shot, I thought that the "gore" factor in this film was a cut above your normal Hollywood film. There is a scene when one of the "terrorists" is captured and she chooses suicide instead of capture, which is nearly unheard of in the American action genre. Swiri oozed with the type of action I only imagined I would find in The Corrupter.Swiri caught my attention on several levels, most of which I have already mentioned, but there was a missing element that I just couldn't put my finger on until I began this review. I remember when I first started this film I was confused. I had trouble seeing the characters, their stories, and their connections with each other. The violent introduction pulled me in, but as we became more developed, I felt lost and confused for about forty minutes, then I was able to find my footing. I don't know if it is just the rocky beginning, but I just thought that the first couple of instances when we get to see Hee in action were cheap. It could have been developed stronger. I wanted to know more about the CTX, more about it's destruction. As our terrorists begin announcing their plans, I felt there was quite a bit of waiting around and hoping the "good" guys would discover the truth and save the day. The sense of urgency was definitely lacking from some of the crucial moments of the film. If I had to name three things that I think were a downfall to this film they would be 1) pacing 2) confusing development and 3) Hee's true powers. I felt there was a whole hour that could have been dedicated to learning about the horrors that Hee had done prior to going into hiding. I needed more Hee! Overall, through all of this bantering, I thought that Swiri was a decent film. It was better than any action film that American Hollywood has to offer, but I think I need to see more work from Korea to fully grasp the ability that they have. It is always good to support the film that overtook Titanic at the box office. It is always good to support a film that gives you equal parts realistic human drama and explosions (which were kept to a minimal). Finally, it is always good to support a film that uses fish in a genuinely interesting, and mind-bending, way. I loved the twists and turns (reminded me of a great car chase), but I hated the confusing introduction. I needed more Hee, less random targets.Grade: *** out of *****