Harbin

Harbin Movie Review

Harbin is a disappointing cinematic experience that fails to live up to its potential. Despite the visually stunning direction and well-crafted atmosphere, the film struggles to maintain interest due to its sluggish pacing and lack of emotional depth.

The most frustrating aspect is Hyun Bin's performance, which stands out as the film's weakest element. His portrayal lacks the intensity and charisma required for such a role, making it difficult to stay invested in the story.

While some supporting actors, particularly Jo Jung-min, manage to deliver strong performances, they aren't enough to salvage the film. Harbin had all the ingredients for success but ultimately falls flat, leaving viewers with a sense of disappointment.

Harbin is a movie that portrays a group of korean independence activist going on a dangerous mission to gain independence for their home country korea in 1901.

Roles were played perfectly by each actor and there were many plot twists in the movie that builds tension and suspense for audiences, the climax does not disappoint as well. Ending was very unexpected but it does not disappoint you. In my opinion, this movie was one of the best i have ever watched and might be the greatest war related movie other than hacksaw ridge. To sum up, I really recommend people to watch this movie as it provides a good representative of a war movie. I would rate this a 10/10!!!!

Harbin was a movie that took me on a journey in one particular sense: it starts off with a spectacular and especially gnarly, grisly insurgent-battle set piece, so pungent with blood and viscera and gore on a level that means to shock you with its brutality; this is followed by our flawed but stalwart hero Ahn Jung-Geun (don't worry you will be reminded of his name by the scarred Japanese antagonist as dozen times letting go the Japanese lieutenant for the whole "we can't keep going down this dark path" reasoning that ultimately leads to part of his troops being massacred; this then leads to... a reprimand but then he is back in good graces for some reason as the main plot to take out a Japanese Prime Minister; then it is a little dull as it goes into major exposition-plot mode and there are long shots of landscapes and characters that are fairly thin (and I had that worry of "oh this is getting too dry and dull)...

Then a funny thing happens: the story takes a suspenseful turn around the halfway mark (actual storytelling is a way where it's being *shown* instead of told as our hero turns his head on a train and book revelation): a major character is a mole in the Korean operation, and the unfolding of how this came to be - in what should be a stock approach with a black and white tinted flashback but it manages to be directed so that we are locked in with the performances and tension that this brings - is what brought me back around to liking the film again. It's never a poorly made film, on the contrary the director Woo Min-Ho has a sharp eye for detail and artistry, from the opening shot of the lone man on the ice to those ragged and harrowing battle shots, and then how we always know what is happening during the attacks or that one big whoops of an explosion that mucks up the plot for the Koreans.

If there's any overriding issue though it's that the main character of Ahn is just not that compelling, through no fault of Hyun Bin, simply that it's most interesting to see his best intentions turned sour from his comrades, but then this doesn't figure much into the rest of the story and he becomes more of a story device than anything else. Luckily the supporting cast pick up the slack, especially Park Hoo, Jo Woo Jin and, nearly unrecognizable from his various Kdrama appearances I'm used to seeing, Lee Dong-Wook (our boy has facial hair for once), and one does get more involved with the plot the more the stakes get turned up in the second half. It's worth seeing, though perhaps if you want a dark and gloomy wartime espionage epic where the ambition really meets the artistry go watch or watch again Age of Shadows instead.

Hyun Bin's portrayal of Korean independence leader Ahn Jung-geun is a sophisticated portrait of what it takes to be human in an inhuman situation. The war they fight is brutal, the Japanese are unrelenting, the landscape and weather are harsh. Ahh struggles to lead, knowing choices he has made have cost the lives of his comrades. He faces an impossible dilemma: to give up and live with guilt of failure or to carry on, risking more deaths and more failure. This film uses stunning cinematography to highlight the bleakness and intensity of the independence fighters' world. This isn't an action film of set-piece stunts and thrills, but an intelligent and moving film of ordinary people facing extraordinary circumstances.

It's almost like watching a film noir in the 50s. Limited sources of light and shadow create a mysterious and suspenseful vibe. Low-key lighting and toned-down colors and even a little bit of melancholy. 'Harbin' narrates the story in a slightly detached and aloof manner.

Film noir is the right 'form' to maximize 'the content'. The director wants to describe a human Ahn rather than a hero Ahn. His anguish, doubts, and mistakes are all included, and it's not a story of a hero who saves the world. He's a human who carries out the responsibilities given to him at a difficult time in history. Ironically, after seeing him as an ordinary human being, the audience respects him more because one begins to feel closer and more attached to Ahn.

For example, for the battle scene in the beginning, Ahn's army does not fight with refined techniques or delicate choreography. It's a street fight and gang fight, throwing punches in the air and covered with mud. That feels more real and more down-to-earth the same as how the director wanted to portray Ahn.

The only weakness is that the storyline is too lineal and simple. It's not like there are no dramas in the movies, but it does not feel dramatic not even once.