Amsal

I remember that a few years ago I loved 'Jeon Woo-Chi' from this same director. It was so awesome, the mix between the modern world and ancient myth with the usual Korean style presentation, a little different from other similar western films due to the cultural difference. After that, this the second movie of his I am watching and I had two opposite thoughts in the two halves of the movie.

Initially, I felt I chose a wrong movie. One of the reason was, I could not get the film characters right due to complicated introductions. Too many main characters and that's a too much to recognise if you're not a Korean or not familiar with the Korean faces/actors. Somewhat I was confused, at least in the first quarter. In the second half, especially after the story moved to Korean, I get used to it and afterwards it was very smooth.

The other reason was obviously the length of the movie. Only because of the puzzled opening order. Later the story development was so good, I began to feel comfortable with the narration and after that I did not notice the runtime at all. I have no source to confirm whether it was based on the real or simply a cinematic fiction, but it was very interesting as it progress. So don't force yourself to watch the movie, but it you do, then give it a time in the beginning and be focused, later definitely you will be in a position to get through as easily as I did.

"Damn, we could all die tomorrow. Let's dance."

Actually, it all began in the year 1911, and moved to 20 years later during the Japan's occupation of Korea. The resistance freedom fighters plan a series of assassination of the Japanese leaders in the nation's different regions. One such man was a powerful native business tycoon. When everything goes wrong, the story begins to take a turn, complicates further by revealing the old secret. How much it affects and to whom, followed by the final battle sequence.

Obviously everyone interesting in this film for Jeon Ji-Hyun's presence. Of course, as usual she was very impressive, but her so- star, Ha Jung-Woo with his weird screen name 'Hawaii Pistol' was also equally good. When I first heard Hawaii Pistol is coming, I thought it was the arms supply from Hawaii. Anyway, it was a grand intro, after his entry the movie was set to explore the rest of the story in a style. The other actors like his hilarious partner and the main villain set the tone for the movie.

Certainly it is a movie to pick if you want an historic subject other than your regular Korean themes. Beautifully written for the screen, except like I said the editing was confusing for the lack of proper inception. Don't think it's simply about the brave freedom fighters; betrayal, revenge, family, third person caught in, like that it had many stuffs. It is also very rare to see a woman fighter among them. All the action scenes were really well made, because that's the title isn't. The terrific settings of the 30s as well. I can't say about it is a must see or not, but surely a fine historic movie that I am pleased with.

8/10

Based on real events, this may seem a bit convoluted at times, but still very engaging to watch. You can feel the desperation and the pressing times this is portraying. The introduction of the characters takes its time and still sometimes you wonder what the real motives are behind some of the actions being done here.

Still the action is well shot and choreographed, which is crucial, but the drama bits work too. The pace is nicely done and you almost don't feel this is a long movie at all. The ending might be a bit over dramatized, but it should work with most viewers, especially after the journey we just went through.

Set during the 1930s (during the Japanese occupation of Korea) and it concerns two assassinations that our protagonists plot against pro-Japanese targets. The hit team consists of a sniper, a jailed military school graduate, and an explosives expert.

The first thing to understand about this movie is that it has an outstanding cast, which yields great performances across the board. Ji-hyun Jun is the lead actress; her popularity exploded when she starred in My Sassy Girl (2001), but she's also been on a scorching hot streak lately with films like The Thieves (2012) and The Berlin File (2013), as well as a hugely popular K-drama television series named You Who Came from the Stars (which finished in 2014). I love this actress. I'll watch her in anything. She starred in the sexiest tea commercials of all time, by the way. Assassination also stars Jung-jae Lee (Big Match, The Face Reader, New World) and Jung-woo Ha (Kundo: Age of the Rampant, The Terror Live, The Berlin File, The Chaser, The Yellow Sea, etc.). There are also some very recognizable faces in supporting roles as well. The cast is just loaded! And it's great watching everyone interact.

The plot is quite complicated, but it is interesting and does a good job of creating a web of conflicts between the characters which comes to a boil later on. It may be a little too convoluted for its own good, which seems to be a trend with some recent Korean thrillers like The Berlin File and The Suspect, but it does force the viewer to pay close attention and watch the movie multiple times to get all of the little details. There are also a few wicked twists and unexpected moments.

Production values are top notch: the period set designs that are showcased are excellent. You really feel like you're back in the 1930s. Action ramps up near the midpoint and is nicely staged in a realistic manner. It's always cool seeing 1930s technology utilized during shootouts and chases. The entire second half is exciting.

"Assassination" or "Amsal" is an engaging and epic mixture of an espionage action film and a historically inspired drama. Both genre parts are equally balanced and the modern special effects aren't so overloaded that they feel out of context in a movie set more than eighty years ago. The film convinces with an intellectually appealing script, diversified and great characters and acting performances and a solid mixture of historically inspired storytelling, personal drama parts and tense action scenes. There is no doubt that this is one of the best movies of the year.

Over the course of almost two and a half hours, the film tells the story of an assassination attempt on a Japanese governor and a pro-Japanese Korean business tycoon by Korean resistance activists during Japan's colonial rule of Korea. The movie is set at different times and even the perspectives slightly change which makes the movie a little bit hard to follow in the beginning. The film takes all the time it needs to introduce the different characters and the historical settings which adds a lot of depth to the characters, details to the historic elements and emotions to the story. These are the reasons why the slightly long introduction that might be hard to sit through for wider audiences is absolutely essential to the rest of the movie.

The first slow-paced hour builds up to the furious last ninety minutes of the film. The final two thirds of the film feature a stellar acting performance, a smart use of camera angles, costumes, locations, soundtrack and special effects by the director and a clever story with many predictable but also unpredictable twists and turns in form of different conspiracies.

Especially the fate of female sniper Ahn OK-yun who is portrayed by an absolutely stunning Jun Ji-hyun in the best performance of her career is a key element of the movie. Most viewers will probably care a lot about the twisted ups and downs of this engaging character.

The showdown of the movie is one of the best directed action scenes in world cinema this year and in the history of Korean cinema in general. It's not as memorable as the fighting scenes in "Oldboy", "The Man from Nowhere" or "The Admiral: Roaring Currents" but it gets quite close and has a breathtaking choreography. The coda of the movie which takes place almost two decades after the actions of the main plot is an excellent way to end a great movie on a high note.

Due to it's complex story and high number of directional ideas, I would recommend watching this movie several times. This emotional action-drama is definitely worth your attention and one of the cinematic highlights of the year. I can't wait to revisit this great film and buy this movie on DVD or Blu-ray next year.

The always entertaining Gianna Jun headlines Assassination, a thrilling historic drama set during the 1930s in Japanese Occupied Korea. An OK-Yoon (Jun) is an expert marksman released from prison to execute a daring plot. Hired by Yeom Suk-Jin (Lee Jung-Jae), she is to take Soksapo (Cho Jin-Woong) and Hwang Deok-Sam (Choi Duk-Moon) to Seoul, where they will terminate Kang In-Gook (Lee Kyoung-Young), a vile Japanese sympathizer.

At the same time, Hawaii Pistol (Ha Jung-Woo) and his accomplice Younggam (Oh Dal-Su), two expert assassins who care only for profit, are hired to eliminate the assassination team, though problems arise when Hawaii Pistol confronts OK-Yoon, and finds himself torn between his mission, and a possible future with his beautiful target.

Unlike Choi-Dong Hoon's The Thieves, where audiences were left guessing which characters had nefarious agendas, the director in this instance reveals the identity of the traitor almost immediately. This however, does not come at the expense of the plot, as we watch how the villain manipulates other characters, and eventually begins to psychologically suffer from living a treacherous existence. Often during the film, audiences are privy to information that characters are denied, and though we acknowledge interconnections between characters that even they know nothing of, further details could have been provided to flesh out the heroes and antagonists alike. As an example, though clues are provided as to why OK-Yoon was given a prison-sentence, a definitive answer is never provided.

Again, unlike The Thieves, the use of humorous dialogue is kept to a minimum, accentuating the morbid tone the film primarily exhibits. The action scenes moreover are very entertaining, heightened by the settings, that are occasionally rarely seen in such a genre, the explosions and gun battles that take place dazzling the screen. At the same time though, these scenes predominately transpire later, the film being more of a war drama, than an action film.

Assassination is set over several decades, the way the multiple narratives intersect to reveal how moments shape the plot, alongside character's lives, accentuating the story. At the same time however, the stereotypical Korean melodrama does render the film predictable, poignant moments in the narrative being capitalized to gather emotive reactions from viewers, the resulting consequences being very foreseeable, which diminishes some of the film's more powerful moments.

The feature is a very typical war film, in that it represents only one side of the confrontation, in this case, the Koreans, who are portrayed as sympathetic victims. This is heightened by the villainous qualities of the antagonists, Japanese soldiers like Kawaguchi (Park Byung-Eun) being visualized as deranged murderers, whose loathsome deeds render them inhuman.

There are occasional moments of beauty to be had over the film, however, much of Assassination demonstrates the horrific violence that transpires, condemning such actions, while embracing the belief, those who can do good, should vehemently do so. Despite The Thieves being a more enjoyable film, Assassination will certainly stay with you, long after it has finished.