The Man from Nowhere

Korean thriller makers are making a splendid job now-a-days, they have even succeeded the Hollywood thriller makers in this specific genre..The Man from Nowhere' is a perfect example of this. Anyone might think this is a mix of 'Leon:The Professional' and 'Man on Fire' where a highly trained but troubled person tries to protect a child, but this movie is more than that.There are many short but strong stories nicely fabricated that will keep You watching the total movie in a rush! Now come to the story. A mystery man with no past links suddenly becomes involved in a drug transport because of a child being kidnapped and unfortunately that child was the only link of him to the outerworld .So had to comeout from his own hideout and save the girl and find out the persons behind it. He has to defy the police as they are after it too, at a point the sad past life comes to daylight and it was well understood about his strange behavior of everything. This rouge so renegades the force and takes the action by his own. The stylish BOURNE looking action scenes specially needs to be appreciated.But I m not giving it the highest rating only its lacking of showing the touchy emotions in the best way..it was excess .Silence play a better role than words in some situations, it needed that. But the overall movie was simply sublime.reasonable violence was shown here..it was logical. Some funny characters and parts are nicely putted into, that enhanced the color and variety of the movie. But I am getting addicted to this korean thrillers." Memories of a murder', "Joint security Area', Vengeance trilogy( including OLDBOY), Infernal Affairs trilogy, 'The Chaser','Thirst','The Bittersweetness of Life', 'I Saw The Devil'..the serial is getting longer and longer..keep it up !!

"This Man" is about as standard plot-wise as action movies get. A lone wolf type takes a little girl under his wing, the kid gets kidnapped, and he ends up having to go through heaps of bad guys in his quest to save the girl.

By all accounts, the movie should have evoked little more than a shrug. After all, anyone who has seen even just a moderate amount of action movies will have seen countless movies with variations of this basic plot. One might think of "Leon" or "Man on Fire" for some closer examples, or movies such as "Taken" in other respects.

What made this movie into my favorite action movie in a long while is the execution of that basic plot. "This Man" manages to create just the right dark, gloomy mood to match the story and all the characters are believable. None of the scenes appear contrived or overly tear-jerker. Another vital aspect for an action movie is, of course, that the action sequences are very well done. The movie is quite graphic, but not gratuitously so or for its own sake such as in many a recent horror movie (the Saw series comes to mind).

I guess the movie could be likened to a good apple pie - certainly nothing revolutionary, in fact quite the staple of its genre, but who would want to turn down a really good apple pie with quality ingredients?

Simply wow.

A lot of people are put off by foreign language films and I hope those people don't let that stop them from watching this.

It has all the panache of a typical Hollywood film and I have to disagree with some comments that the back-story aspect is lacking compared with the action; my exact thoughts when watching this film were along the lines of "I cannot believe how genuine the character development is". The bond between the two main characters is extremely believable (huge props to the actress who played the young kid). I thought the fact that the film wasn't edited down to the hour-and-half standard probably gave them more room to develop and for an action film, there was much more intelligence than I was expecting to the story.

One of the best films I have seen in a long time.

9/10

But from Korea! A movie haven (and heaven some might argue) for a lot of genre movies. Many of them on the violent side. Which means you should not be easily frightened or squeamish. This has a story and for some it may take a bit too long to get going, but I'd argue it is the right amount of time and it had to take its time to breathe.

To develop and to show us characters and relationships. Of course it is heightened. Of course the movie takes liberties in many areas. But it is well played and well acted. The action set pieces are quite something - and while there are many characters, it is all digestable enough and condensed to a point where it works like a clockwork ...

This movie threatens to be a run-of-the-mill action movie, but manages to create its own identity. The sameness is how it shows most of its bad guys, and there are plenty, as one dimensionally evil. There are children who are put in harm's way, but not gratuitously--for the most part--providing the hero with a chance to be human.

It's very Korean in its thinking, which is always refreshing to me. Saying that, I was surprised by how much it reminded me of TAXI DRIVER. It's not a re-tread by any means, but it almost felt like the director was paying tribute to the earlier film in a couple of scenes. I have no idea if this is true. Most people I have talked to about this movie have never seen the other.

This is an action film and it does not disappoint on that level. Some of it is pretty brutal, but by the finale you will most likely feel that everyone gets what they deserve and, if anything, a few deserved more. This is because they manage to build characters we care about with out slowing down too much. The pacing is nicely done with properly placed comic moments as well. Some of the humor was a bit dark, which was also nice.

What surprised me was how much I cared for the main characters. The child was sweet but not overly so. I'm used to the child being inserted for sentimental or "Ahhhh" effects--like in the first RUSH HOUR--but that is mostly avoided here and it feels much more genuine over all.

There are cruel moments in the film but the film itself did not feel cruel. That is why I liked it. So often films are either mindless, or mean-spirited, and this one avoided these pit-falls.