The Man From Nowhere

"This Man" is about as standard plot-wise as action movies get. A lone wolf type takes a little girl under his wing, the kid gets kidnapped, and he ends up having to go through heaps of bad guys in his quest to save the girl.

By all accounts, the movie should have evoked little more than a shrug. After all, anyone who has seen even just a moderate amount of action movies will have seen countless movies with variations of this basic plot. One might think of "Leon" or "Man on Fire" for some closer examples, or movies such as "Taken" in other respects.

What made this movie into my favorite action movie in a long while is the execution of that basic plot. "This Man" manages to create just the right dark, gloomy mood to match the story and all the characters are believable. None of the scenes appear contrived or overly tear-jerker. Another vital aspect for an action movie is, of course, that the action sequences are very well done. The movie is quite graphic, but not gratuitously so or for its own sake such as in many a recent horror movie (the Saw series comes to mind).

I guess the movie could be likened to a good apple pie - certainly nothing revolutionary, in fact quite the staple of its genre, but who would want to turn down a really good apple pie with quality ingredients?

When I first saw the trailer to this movie, I wanted to go see it but wasn't like super hyped up for it. It basically looked like the Korean version of "LEON: The Professional". But this movie is like the Korean version of "Man on Fire" with fight sequences that are similar to the "Bourne" movies. I heard this film really skyrocketed Won Bin's popularity, especially in Korea and I could tell why. He really is a badass in this movie and his charisma is overflowing in this movie. One of the girl in the audience couldn't help but say "he is so cool" in Korean during the scene where Won Bin's character is driving angrily while on the phone with the bad guys while showing some intimidating emotion. The plot isn't super original or anything, basically "Man on Fire" with a better flow and more dark and gritty with better action in my opinion. Overall this film was a lot better than I expected and also kept my interest from beginning to end while also being entertained. The style of this movie reminded me of "A Bittersweet Life" in a good way which is a plus with saturated colors leaning towards the dark and blue. Some people might get a bit irritated by the constant camera shot to Won Bin's face while he takes a pose like in some magazine or something. But I could tell it's to sell the movie to female viewers as well. Excellent casting, pretty good story with some slick action scenes make this movie really worth seeing, there is something for guys and girls.

8.3/10

The man might be from nowhere but this film could only come from Korea, the land of a million stories of revenge.

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 ...

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.