Yong-eui-ja

Impressive.. Mr.Won and Mr.Yoo...

I feel like the director is a big fan of the Bourne trilogy. The dry fight scenes without music, focusing on the raw sounds of a close quarter fight. The rattling camera angles, the zoom ins and outs. The car chase scenes and a pounding drum music. The earlier chase scenes with the monitors reminded me of the Subway chase in Ultimatum. I feel like some of the more heart-pounding scenes they could have added more ambient sounds and one shots of the civilians. (i would be either cursing or screaming if a car just drove by me in a tight alley)

Don't get me wrong I loved this film and Bourne, it was just something I didn't expect from Korean cinema and I was pleasantly surprised. The director took the best things from it and well integrated it into his own flavor.

Gong-Yoo really shined with the cold look of a trained specialist. He also showed signs of vulnerability and really sold the performance. I never thought he would do a film like this because of the 'pretty guy' impression I got from him in dramas such as '1st shop of coffee prince' however I did notice his talent for a more serious toned role such as in 'Silenced'.

Overall I am very satisfied after watching this film. It kept the very 'Korean' feel of the action film while taking bits from the template of Doug Liman's work.

The Suspect is the type of espionage thriller that starts very good but as usually happens with Asian movies, loses a lot of time with personal dramas and love / hate relations among enemies. The first half of the movie is so fast that it is almost impossible to follow (specially with subtitles). A dissident North Korean highly trained spy called Ji Dong-cheol; working as a chauffeur for an important industrial and political person, witness his boss assassination by a people of the South Korean Secret Service.

Ji Dong-cheol is able to fight the killers, so before dying, his boss gives him a pair of lenses with some secret information (the Mc Guffin).

Of course, Secret Service blames Ji Dong-cheol for the assassination and and start chasing him all over Seoul unsuccessfully. A retired Special Forces, is summoned to capture Ji Dong-cheol; but there is some old history between them.

The first half of the movie, the action is NON-STOP; however during the second half, personal past issues of the main characters are explained via flash backs or dialog; slowing down the action (and the main story line too much). There is still plenty of action and violence filmed in a way only Hong Kong or Korean movies can; but the interest decays.

It is common for Asian movies to include some over-dramatic moments but in this case, the pace changes too much and the events depicted are not that believable or properly developed.

In brief; a decent Korean action thriller with could have benefited for a 20 or 30 minutes trimming or with better written script and a director capable of handling drama without boring.

Pretty much a Korean "Bourne movie". Spies, secrets, double agents, betrayal, vengeance, action, you get it all. Solid performances from all the main cast. The writing is a bit of a B-grade but overall production values are top notch.

I got two main problems with it. First one is the runtime. For such a fast paced action thriller, it's at least half an hour too long.

But the main problem is the camera. It's not the usual slightly shaky style to underline the action. Remember the second Bourne movie? Yeah, well, this is worse. Much worse. In most shots, you won't know what's happening at all. They probably fixed a non-stabilized camera on a kangaroo and let him run amok through the city. My head actually started to hurt while trying to decipher what's going on on the screen all the time. Avoid if you're sensitive to these kind of things. It ruined it for me.

THE SUSPECT is another in a long line of Bourne-influenced spy thrillers from South Korea, films that predictably mine North/South tension for their thrills. This one has much in common with THE BERLIN FILE in its tale of a North Korean defector who finds himself pursued by both the bad guys and authorities in his quest for vengeance.

The worst thing about this film is the slightly confusing, complicated nature of the narrative - at least, when you watch it for the first time. It actually tells a simple, two-fold tale: there's a straightforward revenge narrative here mixed in with a mystery involving a conspiracy so that the viewer spends his or her time trying to work out who the bad guy is. The first half of the film is particularly muddled but it does all become clear towards the end, although it's probably a film you'll need to watch twice to get full enjoyment from. In fact, I did just that, and found myself enjoying it much more the second time around once I knew what was going on.

THE SUSPECT is a very well made movie and it's absolutely action packed. There are car chases, fights and shoot-outs galore here, all dealt with with maximum intensity and captured in loving detail by the director. The cast are also strong in their roles, and as with a lot of these movies, there's a strong emotional core which gives it heart as well as muscle. However, be warned: this is a film that employs extreme shaky-cam throughout, so if you're not a fan of that particular style then this probably isn't the movie for you.

The two stunning set pieces, both involving car chases, are so inspired and teeth-grittingly determined that they make the case for the possibility of individual heroism in a harrowingly venal world.