Director – Kang Je-Gyu – 1999 – South Korea – Cert. 18 – 125m
****
South Korean intelligence men track a North Korean sniper who has gone to Earth – plays in Echoes In Time | Korean Films of the Golden Age and New Cinema which runs from Monday, October 28th until the end of 2024 at BFI Southbank
This South Korean box office success story is a hard-boiled action movie, an Asian cross between Die Hard John McTiernan, 1988) and Nikita (Luc Besson, 1990) which could probably have been made in no other country. The North Korean villains in recent Bond outing Die Another Day (Lee Tamahori, 2002) seem saintly by comparison with the brainwashed, gun-toting mercenaries here, one of whom – deadly female sniper Hee (Kim Yun-jin) – goes to Earth following a series of assassinations of South Korean government officials.
But when some years later, Southern intelligence men Ryu (Han Suk-kyu) and Lee (Song Kang-ho) prove unable to prevent several likely targets from being killed by notorious Northern terrorist Park (Choi Min‑sik), the vanished Hee is their primary suspect for pulling the trigger.
Made in 1999, it originally concerned a slightly post-millennial future, which aspect has been lost with the film taking some four years to reach these shores. What survives are a fascinating metaphor about fish (Shiri is a clear water species found both sides of the North / South border), an impressive plot device about a colourless liquid explosive indistinguishable from water until heated and the distinct feeling that the fiercely capitalist South Koreans don’t like their Northern communist neighbours very much.
The hard-edged thriller format is deftly balanced with an unexpected romantic subplot concerning the girlfriend of one of the cops, which is where the fish metaphor comes in. One deeply upsetting shootout decimates an aquarium, including its live contents, tank by tank. Fish notwithstanding, writer-director Kang Je-Gyu’s film moves along at a terrific pace to give Hollywood action thrillers a run for their money.
Shiri plays in Echoes in Time | Korean Films of the Golden Age and New Cinema which runs from Monday, October 28th until the end of 2024 at BFI Southbank.
Review first published in What’s On in London in 2003.
Trailer:
Trailer (Echoes In Time | Korean Films of the Golden Age and New Cinema):
LKFF, The London Korean Film Festival 2024 ran from Friday, November 1st to Wednesday, November 13th at BFI Southbank and other venues.
Trailer (LKFF 2024):