El hombre de ninguna parte

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 !!

Let me start off by saying that I was skeptical whether I should watch this movie because of all the comparisons here to US productions. Because while I did enjoy most of the ones named, not enough to want to see a basically South Korean copycat at the theater.

If you fear the same thing: Don't worry! This movie is exactly what you would expect from great Korean cinema, comparable to the likes of "The Chaser", "Memories of Murder" and "A Bittersweet Life". In this movie, there is lots of rather believable tragedy, little kitsch (there is the occasional unsuitable one-liner and the girl sometimes says things that in my opinion are too mature for her age and yank a little too much at the emotional chain - these are basically the things that brought my rating down to 9/10) and a fair amount of graphic violence and realism in the fighting scenes. There are also some wacky characters just like they appear somewhat frequently in east Asian productions but I think they fit in quite nicely despite the otherwise very serious tone.

If one were to compare it to a US production, I would go with e.g. "A History of Violence" because of the serious tone and the realism but still, the overall style is drastically different.

The whole experience is nicely rounded off with a very beautiful score and the only thing I considered negative besides what I already mentioned was that the plot is moving very fast. At various points I was not sure whether I didn't pay enough attention or whether details were left out. Meaning for instance how one character got the information about another character. These connections of information between characters are not always clear in my opinion but it does not really hurt the story and I am sure that it would be clear with a second viewing - something that this movie absolutely deserves.

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 ...

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

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.