As we have mentioned many times before, one of the main reasons for the international popularity Korean cinema is enjoying at the moment is the quality of a number of action/crime thrillers that came out mostly during the 00s. As the popularity (and the quality) of local cinema has decreased during the last few years, and probably in an effort to earn back some of the losses the pandemic brought, a number of production companies are turning to the genre once more. The results, however, vary, while reaching the level of masterpieces like “I Saw the Devil” and “The Chaser” does not seem doable at the moment, with the consequences of political correctness definitely not helping in that regard. Regardless, Son Seung-hyun tries his hand on the category through a low budget effort that has both its merits and its issues.
Bodyguard comes to digital/VOD on July 11th, courtesy of MPI Media Group
Han Soo-han is a young man who works in the loan shark industry in Gangreung for boss Jo, a man who always likes to use his airgun, occasionally even towards his subordinates. Soo-han is not by himself, as his two roommates, Tae-yeong and Jin-cheol, also try their best in the business but are not as good fighters as their friend and thus, not as successful. Soo-han actually wants to leave the line of work, but things become much more complicated when he saves Ye-jin, a beautiful woman he stumbles upon at the beach, as she is being chased by two thugs. For the price of a watch, he agrees to protect her, even bringing her to their cramped apartment, with the tension between the two soon changing to something else. It turns out, though, that the girl is being hunted by the mafia members of a conglomerate due to some inheritance issues, with the man in charge, Cheol-woong, eventually hiring boss Jo's crew to search for her. As different sides also turn out to have an interest in the fate of Ye-jin, an inevitable clash eventually takes place.
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Probably the biggest problem of the movie is its cliched nature, which has very little to offer, particular to viewers who have seen their share of Korean crime thrillers. The capable man who wants to get out of the world of crime but fails, the rich heiress that needs to be saved, a number of villains and henchmen in costume, betrayals and switching of styles, and a couple of comedy relief characters are essentially “tropes” found all over the category. That the romance does not move in a generic way is probably the only narrative aspect that stands out here, in an element, though, that is quite appealing, also due to the evident charisma and beauty of both Kang Seok-chul as Soo-han and Yoo Ye-bin as Ye-jin.
In terms of action, Son seems to have tried to make it as stylish as possible, with the fact that the overwhelming majority of the characters wear suits when they fight, definitely moving in that direction. Again, however, the approach ends up cliched, as the low-budget production prevents the movie from reaching the levels of “A Bittersweet Life” for example, which follows a similar approach. On the other hand, the final fight, which takes a rather significant part of the already economical 81 minutes of the film, is quite imposing. The initial part with scores of suited guys fighting each other, the appearance of the two cruel ultra-fighters, and the drama involving the revelations of a number of secrets as much as the ending, result in a sequence that essentially makes the whole film worth it. Ahn Gyeom-seo' cinematography and the editing also find their apogee here, cementing the aforementioned fact.
From the rest of the cast, the ones that stand out are Lee Tae-hyung who plays the dangerous clown with gusto and Han Kook-in, who plays a similar, but less dangerous type as Jin-cheol.
“Bodyguard” is a movie that practically lingers between the straight-to-video and the cinema movie, but in the end, I feel that fans of action/crime thrillers will find a couple of things to enjoy here, particularly in the final scene.
