Hoi-sa-won

"A Company Man" is an average, not especially original, but mildly entertaining, story of the everyday life of a hit-man, who (you can imagine) will rethink his lifestyle.

Ji-seob So plays Ji, who does his job very well and cares for his 'family'. But on one job, he kind of starts thinking too much (how come all those hit men always end thinking too much) and doubting about the lifestyle he has. Cue our man trying to figure out how to be 'human' will being also a 'killer'.

The plot, as said above, is 'hit-man-with-a-heart' 101, and someone should tell the writers of this kind of movies to be a little bit original (here the originality is that the assassin's company has a... well, company, in a building, where people 'work' as your average salaryperson).

But even lame plots can be made great by acting, production, direction, scenery, pace... Here all of this is more or less average, the best the acting (even if we still fall into the blank, expressionless acting for the hit-man). All enjoyable enough, with a couple of set-pieces that are good. However, the movie neglects its raison d'etre (action), because the direction and pace of the action pieces is not as good as it should. Especially, because the movie falls into the we-cannot-shoot-for-the-love-of-all-the-gods pit trap.

"A Company Man" will be an enjoyable one hour and a half for fans of this genre, but it offers absolutely nothing new.

Its a shame when a film of this artistic beauty doesn't have the proper rating. Maybe everyone is fed up with 'the common drama' and expect something unexpectable, it could be various reasons, it could be anything, but this drama stands out as a solid one. Its Korean drama in a nutshell, and shows how far the korean scene is from its counterparts (the rest of the world). It feels like this film takes a lot of influences from other korean dramas, I immediately thought of 'A bittersweet life', mainly because of the personality and situation of the protagonist. Personally, I cant get enough of this type of drama, ofc. you could have a more developed story and dialogues, strive for better overall quality, but you could say that about anything.

For your sake, ignore the rating and see this wonderful film.

The only thing these Company Men have in common with the other Company Men (movie with Affleck, Tommy Lee Jones and more), is that they're struggling to survive after they are fired. On a more serious note though: This is a really good action drama, with a central performance that is understated and played very small.

Of course you have to wait quit a bit for action pieces, after an initial amazing stung at the beginning of the movie. But while it is foreseeable most of the times, it does deliver on everything it promises. There is over dramatization a few times, but you'll either accept it as part of the movie or just hate it happening. Depends on your own view.

South Korea has really carved out a place for themselves by releasing some pretty awesome dramatic thrillers. This is one of those movies. A professional hit man working for a group who use a metal company as a front for their illegal enterprise, begins to rethink his career choice. After been given the task to eliminate a young and expendable coworker, he meets his co worker's mother, a former musician who he admired as a teen, and starts to develop feelings for her. This makes him want to leave all the more but how do you leave such a dangerous position unscathed?

I enjoyed the subtle drama used to build our characters and story in this film. There is an air of romance to this but it is really focused more on the relationship between the hitman and company. This was filmed and acted well and the action choreography was good. There's not much to complain about other than a bit of tweaking the story and adding a bit more to the end to tie up a few loose strings. This is a movie that I would recommend to a friend. Check it out.

This is actually a entertaining flick that combines different movie elements into one and pull it off for the most part. It seemed like it combined movies like "A Bittersweet Life", "Wanted", "RED" and maybe even a bit from the film "Fight Club". Never the less despite how wacky and silly this movie gets(intentional or unintentional) it's still a entertaining flick. It just not a very memorable flick but a decent way to pass the time. Although many things in this movie has been done before it's still a decent rehash I guess because I just wasn't really bored with this movie. So Ji-Sub really drives this movie as this charismatic and cool killer that works for a company full of assassins with special sets of skills. So Ji-Sub's style of fighting is not only entertaining but slick and cool. Also the the duel with him and a knife wielding office chick is one of the highlight of this flick. Although there are some areas where they could have gone more ahead with and some aspects of this film seemed rushed and underdeveloped. It's still a watchable flick, even just the climax itself makes it worth a watch. If you like this movie check out "A Bittersweet Life" which is a more gritty and realistic film that has some similar elements as this one.

6.9/10