Escape

Escape (2024) is the latest release from Well Go USA. It is a gripping, compelling, human story coming out of South Korea. We have long hailed South Korea films as being some of the top in the world, and this film reinforces that sentiment. While it may be be fair to say that the closed off nature of the North Korean regime leaves much about what happens across the DMZ to the imagination, there is enough information from the historical data gathered from Defectors to paint a general picture of the conditions there. This film comes from the perspective, not of an ordinary citizen of North Korea who decides to defect, but from that of a solder. As the film lays out, the punishment for such an act is, ultimately, death. It is with that knowledge that we are riveted by the notion that a person would risk death for their freedom from totalitarianism; something most of us in the West take for granted. The acting is strong. Performances by Lee Jon-Hee and Kyo-Hwan Koo are the strength of the movie. They provide great depth, without superfluous dialogue. The action and Direction are very good here. It is brutal in spots. While the film does have some spots where you need to suspend belief; I don't think that hurts the appreciation of the vehicle. While the film may have a different reception in South Korea; it seems the film highlights the value of modern South Korea life. The film is best watched in Korean with subtitles.

The story is edge-of-your-seat gripping, quite easy to slip into and believable. About halfway, improbabilities start creeping in. Perhaps they're worth it, because they cause you to shift your focus from the actions to the minds driving them.

The psychopathy becomes the story. The (preachy!) longing to be free becomes an afterthought. We suspect unrequited love from one protagonist, but the relationship is never fully defined. The lovelorn one makes it clear he wishes to keep his object close, though. The rejection is profound, and the pet that turned ugly must be destroyed.

By the story's end, improbable becomes ludicrous. Still, if you hang on to the psych angle - divorce it thoroughly from any chance at reality, it's palatable.

This film is a very compelling watch. It kept me on the edge of my seat and kept my interest to the end. I highly recommend this film. Great action and suspense, and a great story overall. This a story of a discharging soldier defecting to the South and his many obstacles and trials along the way. Fast paced with action and an interesting plot. I especially liked the characters and their interactions with each other. The protagonist and antagonist were good friends growing up. The added complication of the main character desperately trying to help a comrade defect along with him added to the suspense of the film. Great cast, great production and direction and awesome cinematography throughout!

A very intelligent Seargent of the North Korean border force meticulously plans his escape from his base and through minefields to get to South Korea.

He scouts out his escape route at night, makes elaborate plans, draws maps and hides them and more useful items until he needs them.

Buuut on the day of his planned escape everything goes awry and absolutely nothing goes right.

Instead of reaching South Korea he even ends up in the lion's den - a highly guarded party for the military elite in a far away town.

He still tries to flee though and gets into one tough situation after the other.

It is quite like a James Bond movie.

The dangerous situations he gets in are always surprising and you don't see them coming.

And how he manages to get out of them is even more surprising and like in a good James Bond movie he does so with intelligence, wits and smarts.

There is a lot of James-Bond-like irony, fun and black humor in this movie and it is almost always intelligent and clever.

You constantly think "There is no way the hero can get out of this now!"

But he does - and always in a very surprising and clever way.

What makes the escape of our hero extremely difficult is the fact that the antagonist who hunts him, is extremely intelligent too.

The bad guy is a little bit psycho like a James Bond villain but knows the hero from when they were younger and even tries to help him in the beginning.

I really enjoyed watching this clever and smart movie and the battle of wits between the two main characters.

Why then, only (highly deserved) 8 stars and not ten, you might ask?

Well, towards the end, the movie starts to have some really stupid moments and some things happen that are just not believable and totally out of character for the hero and the villain.

It also gets a bit schmaltzy.

It's like they changed the clever screenwriters after just three quarters of the script were finished and the new ones were not quite up to the job.

But the last quarter of the movie is still good but by far not as surprising, thrilling and clever as the rest.

I still highly recommend watching it.

It appears that North Korea is managing to capture attention, as evidenced by the films produced by their adversaries in the South. Director Lee Jong-pil's adaptation of the screenplay by Kwon Sung-hui and Kim Woo-geun ultimately lands in an ambiguous space. The narrative presents an intriguing yet underdeveloped tale of a North Korean defector who escapes to South Korea after a decade of military service, pursued by a relentless North Korean National Security officer, which introduces a degree of tension.

The inclusion of contextual flashbacks enriches this otherwise linear chase story, although these digressions occasionally disrupt the dramatic flow, prompting questions about the narrative's depth and coherence. The overall impression is one of incompleteness.

The initial segment of the film was particularly engaging, introducing the highly focused North Korean Sergeant Lim Kyu-nam (Lee Je-hoon) as he stealthily exits his barracks under the cover of darkness, evading guards and strategically placing markers on his route to the Military Demarcation Line. Lim meticulously navigates a literal minefield, with each night bringing him closer to his goal. Upon returning to base, he is faced with reminders of the urgency of his departure.

Another soldier, the anxious Kim Dong-hyuk (Hong Xa-bin), witnesses one of Lim's clandestine outings and expresses his desire to escape to the South, citing, "Tomorrow is my mom's birthday. I miss her terribly." In a moment of folly, he attempts to flee on his own, leading to Lim's capture while trying to rescue him. At this juncture, Kim takes the blame, and I will leave the subsequent developments for the film to reveal.

While the film is certainly watchable and offers moments of entertainment and action, with good acting as part of it, the latter half becomes increasingly disjointed, with numerous subplots left unresolved, ultimately detracting from the overall experience.