Korean Reviews Reviews

Film Review: Secret Reunion (2010) by Jang Hoon

, who started his career as an assistant to Kim Ki-duk, has only directed four feature films as of now. “Rough Cut” in 2008, “” in 2010, “The Front Line”, in 2011 and “A Taxi Driver” in 2017. However, all of them are considered top notch, with Hung managing to combine commercial success with acclaimed reviews. This particular one also netted him the Best Film Award from the Blue Dragon Awards.

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Ji-won and Han-gyoo are special agents for North and South Korea, respectively. The two of them exchange glances during a North Korean assassination attempt of Kim Jong-il's second cousin, which fails due to Tae-soon's betrayal. Shortly after, Han-gyoo is discharged for mishandling the case and Ji-won takes the blame for Tae-soon, subsequently going into hiding from his commander named Shadow. Six years later, Ji-won and Han-gyoo meet again and through a series of seemingly random consequences, they end up working and living together.

Jang Hoon directs a thriller that benefits the most from its cinematography, with the fast pace and the impressive action scenes, including car chases, lots of shootouts, violence, and its artfully choreographed brawls. Furthermore, he entails almost every theme S.Korean find entertaining, including the struggle between the two Koreas, and the combined elements of thriller, comedy and drama, with the general style explaining the film's commercial success.

He bases most of the film on 's performance as Han-gyoo, who is once more magnificent in a very complicated role that requires him to appear as a hero, an everyday man, and a clown, in a very difficult task that he executes with distinctive ease. Kang Do-won's part as Ji-won is far less demanding, since he portrays, the silent, good-looking melancholic guy, without having to present any extreme sentiments or even talk too much. He functions well though within the movie, and his chemistry with Song is evident, and one of the film's greatest assets. is also great as the cruel and violent Shadow, presenting a great evil character. In a somewhat peculiar tactic, there is no female role in the film, with the overall woman presence being minimal in a clear notion that the film is chiefly addressed to male fans of action films.

The sole fault of the film lies with its duration, which should probably be about 20-30 minutes less, since the movie slumps in the middle , with much unnecessary lagging.

“Secret Reunion” is a very entertaining film, which benefits the most from its production values and Song Jang-ho's performance.

About the author

Panos Kotzathanasis

My name is Panos Kotzathanasis and I am Greek. Being a fan of Asian cinema and especially of Chinese kung fu and Japanese samurai movies since I was a little kid, I cultivated that love during my adolescence, to extend to the whole of SE Asia.

Starting from my own blog in Greek, I then moved on to write for some of the major publications in Greece, and in a number of websites dealing with (Asian) cinema, such as Taste of Cinema, Hancinema, EasternKicks, Chinese Policy Institute, and of course, Asian Movie Pulse. in which I still continue to contribute.

In the beginning of 2017, I launched my own website, Asian Film Vault, which I merged in 2018 with Asian Movie Pulse, creating the most complete website about the Asian movie industry, as it deals with almost every country from East and South Asia, and definitely all genres.

You can follow me on Facebook and Twitter.

  • umm strange. i remember watching this and really enjoying it – yet when thinking back about great Song Kang-ho films this film did not even cross my mind..

    guess it was enjoyable but easily forgettable…

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