Smugglers

This film isn't really about how smuggling worked in the past in South Korea, but rather how ordinary people found ways to share the profits. In this process, there were lives lost due to the risks stemming from legal sanctions, prison sentences, and power struggles among different factions. Essentially, it's about changing the routes. When direct imports became illegal, similar to the current U. S.-China trade war, some underground gangs engaged in third-party intermediaries to earn profits in between. In 'Smugglers,' the movie depicts the use of female divers and fishery vessels for transportation. It also realistically portrays various aspects like repackaging and customs corruption. It reminds me that even if you have a unique skill, you often remain a cog in the profit supply chain, and it takes determination and vision to become a leader or boss.

After a chemical plant steals their jobs, rendering the fisherwomen well...out of fish to catch, they indulge in smuggling to meets ends. A gang of 6 women who are expert sea divers start fishing out smuggled goods and their popularity lands them on a bigger hunt. As this dive goes south, both personal loss and betrayal break the women, as one of them escapes while the rest get arrested. Years later, they once again meet for another Fortune but this time more harsh truth gets revealed. How they get their revenge on the ones responsible forms rest of the story.

Setting the story in the 70s, the retro feel is well captured. However, the funky music as well as the cinematography ensures a humorous narrative, the emotional scenes however don't gel well with it. This takes time to get used to the proceedings. Also, a team of six yet only two get full fledged roles which stuck out as a sore thumb. Add to that, the women power initiative leads to the male characters predictable character arc which undermined the reveal.

But to speak of positives, Kim Hye-Soo and Yum Jung-ah single handedly carry this film, making the drama work. Then there is the action sequences, pre-climax and the terrific underwater climax action which instantly made this a paisa vasool watch. The non-linear narrative, going back and forth to make multiple reveals elevated the drama even if the reveals were to be predictable. The whole double cross, triple cross sequence was fun throughout. It is indeed the second half that saves the film, firmly aided by the performances of the duo female leads and the two action sequences.

It's quite a decent film. I had a lot of reservations, not being interested in asian cinema, but the film was captivationg and well-made. The picture is very nice, great camera work, locations, the story in dynamic and interesting, the actors play well. I'd say the only negative element of it is their voices/intonations, I guess it is a part of the language, but oh my dog please stop whining... 2 hours is a good length, not too long, but the story had the chance to develop. It is quite complex as well, it doesn't drag on one spot. People in the cinema were laughing and gasping a few times, so the drama and depiction of the realities of life is there.

This right here is what you call a perfect script. WOW! These Koreans have some reaaaally dope stories to tell. Am not a comedy person, so when this started it had that comedy vibe and I almost trashed it but I thought too myself, give it 15 min, see how it turns out and boy was I glad I did. It quickly went from comedy to serious stuff. When I say Action Comedy, this right here is exactly that. The comedy was well placed, but when it was time for serious business, they didn't play. Kinda reminded me of the very successful Korean movie, Parasite.

I can't think of what I didn't like about this movie, for real. The acting was great from all of the cast, even the extras. The cinematography was beautiful. And the story was perfect, I couldn't see any flaws anywhere. Maybe am just a sucker for women empowerment, who cares. There's just something cool about women outsmarting corrupt men. 😊😊

Ryoo Seung Wan, known for previous box office hits such as Veteran, The Battleship Island, Exit, and Escape from Mogadishu offers a new addition of aquatic crime action genre that's refreshingly great...

The plot is actually about betrayal and diving, but the story is delivered very well by the tension of the dramatic action sequences and the great actings of all the lead characters...

Smugglers have a larger-than-life feel from the very first shot, when a grand drone shot shows us all the striking beauty of sailing the sea on a sunny day, and every further scene maintains that energy...

Kim Hye-soo proves why she remains one of the country's most popular actresses, while Yum Jung-ah manages to stay subtle & underplayed...The fight before climax proves what Koreans are capable once again when it comes to gangster genre...will definitely raise your eyebrows... The two leads have incredible chemistry even when they are at each other's suspicion leading to double or even a triple crossing making a unique script to relish...