Tempest, on Hulu

Seo Mun-ju sort of wants to be like Margaret Chase Smith or Mary Bono, but instead of succeeding her late husband Jang Jun-ik in office, she intends to replace him as a presidential candidate. It will be rather tricky, because he represented the hawkish party, while she was appointed UN Ambassador by the incumbent president, the standard bearer of the dovish party. Fortunately, she has the backing of Jang’s powerbroker mother, but the services of her mysterious bodyguard will be even more important in the political K-drama Tempest, written by Jeong Seo-kyeong, which premieres Wednesday on Hulu.

Apparently, Seo and Jang were not like Mary Matalin and James Carver. They could not dismiss their political differences so easily. Frankly, they never really got along so well, but Seo had resigned herself to loyally standing by him during the upcoming campaign. That is why she resigned from her post at the UN—or maybe she just didn’t complain when Pres. Chae Kyung-sin fired her.

Regardless, she is genuinely horrified when Jang is assassinated in a spectacularly public fashion. Coincidentally, it happened just as Jang adopted a more conciliatory tone towards reunification. Even more disconcerting, he seemed to be expecting it. Consequently, he secretly transferred his family’s entire fortune to her. Seo wants to know why Jang was killed and her candidacy obviously shakes up the establishment and foreign powers—judging from all the work it generates for Baek San-ho.

Baek, formerly of the U.S. Special Forces, now works for Valkyrie, which sounds a lot like Caddis in Butterfly. He also has ties to the North Korean underground railroad through the Catholic priest, who was also happened to be Jang’s spiritual advisor. Baek apprehended the assassin, but could not prevent his cover-up-facilitating suicide. Eventually, Seo agrees to hire him as her chief of security, but Baek has another client who wants him to protect the widow-candidate—at least for now.

Based on the first three episodes provided for review, Jeong and company clearly sympathize with the doves rather than the hawks. Yet, perhaps ironically, the series takes North Korea’s imminent collapse as a given. That seems debatable, since Kim Jong-un has become the leading supplier of arms and enslaved soldiers to Putin.

Regardless, in the world of Tempest, the question is whether the DPRK provokes the U.S. into nuking it out of existence or somehow the South manages to peacefully integrate the North. Unfortunately, Baek learns her husband’s source in the White House, Assistant Secretary of State Anderson Miller, has reason to believe the Trump-like President Houser will soon agree to the former (even though a Hawkish posture towards North Korea is embarrassingly un-Trump-ish).

Frankly, the politics are rather confused in these early episodes, perhaps because Jeong is trying to keep the intrigue murky. However, Seo’s relationships with both Jang and Baek are quite engagingly complex. In fact, Gianna Jun Ji-hyun is perfectly cast as the emotionally reserved and somewhat standoffish Seo. Likewise, Gang Dong-won is steely, but in a sensitive brooding kind of way, as Baek.

Assassination: Gianna Jun Hits the Bullseye

Judging from Ahn Okyun’s experiences, the Korean resistance was a lot like the French underground. Traitors from within were a far greater threat than efforts to root them out. In fact, the greatest threat to her mission comes from the turncoat who recruited her in the first place in Choi Dong-hoon’s Assassination (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.

Ahn was born in Korea, but she never lived there. Her nanny managed to save her when her collaborating dog of a father had her loyalist mother killed. She grew up as part of the free Korean diaspora, becoming a sniper in the Korean Independence Army, despite her spectacles. In contrast, her twin sister lived a life of luxury bought and paid for with blood money. Never really knowing her father, she has no reservations about assassinating him. Hopefully, she will also be able to take out Kawaguchi, the local Japanese commander, who happens to be responsible for the death of her adopted mother.

To complicate matters, Captain Yem, the supposed hero of the provisional government is actually working with the Japanese to undermine the plot he was ordered to launch. Initially, he entrusts the job to a notorious outlaw known as Hawaii Pistol, but the gun-for-hire is about to have his Casablanca moment. Remember that bit about Ahn being a twin? It will be significant.

Fifty-one different flavors of vintage firearms were used in the making of Assassination, which should instill confidence in its action scenes—and rightly so. Even though Choi’s screenplay is chocked full of Shakespearean elements—betrayal, grudges, twins separated by circumstances—the action quota and body count are closer to old school John Woo. It is sort of like Melville’s Army of Night, but with all the existential angst replaced with adrenaline-charged shootouts.

Action director Yu Sang-seop pulls out all the stops down the stretch, delivering a centerpiece spectacle that is truly a thing of beautiful carnage. The entire third act is a non-stop ballet of gunfire, but Choi ends it with some stone cold operatic payback. This is the kind of film that turns fans onto Asian action movies in the first place.

Lee Jung-jae is terrifically loathsome as Yem and Ha Jung-woo’s Hawaii Pistol certainly holds up his end during the action sequences, but Gianna Jun commands the film from start to finish. She was great in Choi’s The Thieves, but this is another level up for her as an action lead. She looks like a natural firing the Mosin-Nagant sniper rifle, but she also expresses the sort emotional turmoil you would expect from an orphan, whose family relationships are about to get considerably more complicated.

Assassination somehow runs a robust one hundred thirty-nine minutes, but they are a lean, mean one hundred thirty-nine minutes. It feels drastically shorter, because most of the time is devoted to action and the relatively quiet moments are used for some pretty effective intrigue. For action fans, this is the good stuff. Very highly recommended, Assassination opens this Friday (8/7) in New York, at the AMC Empire.

The Berlin File: DPRK vs. ROK in a Unified Germany

Like any good socialist system, power in the DPRK is transferred along hereditary lines.  Kim Jong-un has just succeeded his father Kim Jong-il.  However, a power struggle for day-to-day control over the country’s lucrative arms dealings, their only source of hard currency, will engulf at least four intelligence agencies in Ryoo Seung-wan’s The Berlin File (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.

Officially, Pyo Jong-seong is a national hero of the People’s Republic.  He is so good at his covert duties, he remains a “ghost” to western intelligence databases.  Assigned to close an arms sale to an Islamist terrorist group brokered by the Russians, Pyo is quite put out when the Mossad crashes the party.  Jung Jin-soo is also rather out of sorts as well.  The South Korean operative was hoping to bust the Northern Koreans, but the third party intervention blew his operation.  One of the few remaining Cold Warriors in an office full of appeasers, Jung’s position becomes rather precarious politically.  Of course, Pyo is in a tighter spot.

Technically, Pyo is above reproach, but his wife Ryun Jung-hee is not.  As he learns from the Ambassador, Ryun has fallen under suspicion in Pyongyang.  Dong Myung-soo, a well-connected special agent has been dispatched to investigate her as the Israelis’ presumed informant.  Pyo has some rather difficult history with Dong, so he cannot expect any favors from the Communist operative.  Meanwhile, the South Korean Jung is out to get Pyo to avenge his comrades.  A pariah in his own agency, Jung only trusts the council of his CIA contact, Marty, perhaps the film’s only genuinely likable character.

A pleasant surprise from Ryoo and the Korean film industry, Berlin File is one of the best espionage films since Tinker Tailor, in which the true villains are North Koreans and Islamic terrorists.  America does not factor greatly in the story, aside from the sympathetic figure of Marty.  While the South Korean intelligence service does not cover itself in glory, all their dubious actions are done with the intent of making nice with the North.  In short, writer-director Ryoo basically nails the geo-political realities.  He can also stage a wicked fight scene.  Just watching Pyo’s concluding throw-down will make your back wail in pain.

There are indeed some impressive action sequences, but Ryoo is even more effective tapping into bone-deep themes of betrayal and loyalty.  He really puts Pyo and Ryun through the wringer and doesn’t do Jung any favors either.  As a result, Berlin should be tragic enough to be a monster hit in Korea and sophisticated enough to appeal to American fans of international intrigue.

Ha Jung-woo (who blew the doors off dark thrillers like Nameless Gangster, The Chaser, and Yellow Sea), is all kinds of bad as Pyo, convincingly portraying his conflicted loyalties and mounting disillusionment.  Although international superstar Gianna Jun is almost entirely de-glamorized as Ryun, she is still quite a presence, surprisingly affecting in several key scenes.  Berlin also boasts a great supporting ensemble, particularly including Lee Kyoung-young, who plays the Ambassador with a moral ambiguity that really keeps viewers off-balance, and John Keogh, appealingly cynical as the friendly neighborhood CIA agent (benefiting from the generous helpings of English dialogue, nicely punched-up by American screenwriter Ted Geoghegan).

Shot almost entirely on location in Berlin and Riga, Berlin File captures the chilly, paranoid vibe of old school Cold War thrillers.  Ryoo manages to add the amped-up mayhem of his Korean action pictures (like Troublemaker, for instance), while maintaining the best of both worlds.  Highly recommended for fans of action, espionage, and Ms. Jun, The Berlin File opens this Friday (2/15) in New York at the AMC Empire.

Thieves: The Macao Job

In the movies, casinos exist just so they can be taken down.  However, one Korean criminal mastermind is not just pulling a heist because the casino is there, like Everest in downtown Macao.  He is out for payback.  Nor is he is not the only one looking to settle scores in Choi Dong-hoon’s Thieves (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.

A monster hit in Korea, Thieves has just about all the classic heist movies elements.  There is Popie, the cynical ringleader, Yenicall, his hot new accomplice to shimmy about in Cat Woman suits, and her predecessor, Pepsee, fresh out of prison.  They have been recruited for a job in former Portuguese colony by the man Popie and Pepsee blame for her incarceration, their former partner, Macao Park.

After a rather unfortunate incident in an elevator shaft, Macao Park disappeared with a bag full of gold, reinventing himself as a bank breaker in Macao’s casinos, thereby earning his new moniker.  It is not the casino’s cash Park is after this time.  He is interested in the “Tear of the Sun,” a spectacular diamond a guest is storing in their vault.  That would be Tiffany, the mistress of mobbed-up fence Wei Hong.  The plan is to steal the diamond and sell it back to Hong, with the help of a Hong Kong crew led by the sly Chen (for the record, this will make them an even ten).  That might not sound like a very good plan, because it isn’t, but it’s not really what many of the conspirators have in mind.  There are a lot of agendas at play in Thieves that will inevitably lead to a series of crosses and double crosses.

Dripping with style, Thieves will draw obvious comparisons to the Oceans franchise, but it is rather better than that.  While there is comic relief here and there (mostly from Oh Dal-su’s crook, Andrew), Thieves is far edgier with very real sense of danger present throughout.  Nobody here mugs for the camera or tries to show the audience how much fun they are having.  They are professionals and not all of them are going to make it.

Thieves also has something else the Oceans lack: Simon Yam, bringing all kinds of HK action movie cred as the crafty old Chen.  This is a great part for him, allowing him to stretch out as he develops romantic chemistry with Kim Hae-suk’s “Chewing Gum,” the mature Korean con woman he has been paired up with. 

Yet, Yam does not quite out-grizzle Kim Yun-seok’s Macao Park.  Rumpled in a noir way, he could kick Clooney’s butt while still hung over, much like his breakout character in The Chaser (but not quite as dark).  Also recognizable to international audiences (from The Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, among other films), Gianna Jun makes flirtation looks dangerous as the seductive cat burglar Yennical.

Clearly, Choi was not afraid to cut loose with third act action sequences.  There will be no place for smug looks over champagne when it is all said and done, which is what makes it so refreshing.  An amped-up but pleasingly devious heist movie, Thieves is highly recommended for genre fans when it opens this Friday (10/12) in New York at the AMC Empire.

Laotong Story: Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

In today’s China, girls are an endangered species. Largely due to the government’s one-child policy, sex-specific abortions and abandonments have sky-rocketed. It was not much easier for Chinese girls during the early Nineteenth Century either. However, the Laotong (roughly translated as “Old Same”) oath of friendship helped sustain many young women. Yet, the turbulence of the time will test two women’s Laotong bond in Wayne Wang’s Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, which opens this Friday in New York.

Snow Flower and Lily were born under the same sign and had their feet bound on the same day. Even though Wang waters down the literal bone-crunching reality of this practice, what the film shows is still enough to make a brawny man cringe. Unfortunately, this was considered necessary to strike a suitable marriage bargain.

Despite her family’s mean circumstances, Snow Flower’s dainty feet earn her a prestigious match. In contrast, Lily experiences the reverse social mobility, winding up betrothed to a lowly butcher after her father’s opium addiction ruins her family. Though separated by events obviously beyond their control, the two women exchange messages written within the folds of a fan, employing Nüshu, the secret script used by many Chinese women up until the Twentieth Century. (One hopes there is now an internet equivalent in widespread use today).

In parallel lives, Faye Wong Canto-pop listening high school students Nina and Sophia become a late Twentieth Century Laotong pair. Nina excels academically, while Sophia struggles emotionally in the wake of her bankrupted father’s suicide. Despite their recent estrangement, Nina puts her career on hold when a traffic accident renders Sophia comatose. As it happens, Sophia was carrying on her person a copy of her manuscript, which tells the story of Snow Flower and Lily.

Based on Lisa See’s bestselling novel, Secret Fan’s screenplay (credited to Angela Workman, Ron Bass, and Michael K. Ray), adds the contemporary story arc, allowing them to write in a part for Hugh Jackman as Arthur, Sophia’s sketchy night club impresario love interest. He even has a musical number, a novelty love song probably not designed to showcase his Broadway chops.

While Secret Fan illustrates China’s dramatic social changes, it essentially avoids political considerations. Perhaps the unsettling foot binding scene serves as an implied criticism of pre-Communistic era traditionalism. However, the go-go Shanghai of present day is essentially presented as a rather cold mercantile environment.

While the contemporary analog adds a mystical veneer to the story, Secret Fan largely aspires to high-end women’s melodrama and succeeds relatively well as such. Not surprisingly, there are few sympathetic male characters to be found in either time frame. However, the two primary leads more than hold up their ends.

Li Bingbing’s introduction to most American viewers via Secret Fan is a world away from her dynamic action turn in the forthcoming Detective Dee and the Phantom Flame, but certainly shows her range. As Nina and Snow Flower, she is quite intense and nuanced. Yet, the film’s real heart and heartstring pulling comes from Gianna Jun’s exquisitely haunting performance as Sophia and Lily.

Never shy about expressing its emotions, Secret Fan is definitely an old fashioned weeper. While the self sacrifice and noble suffering are nakedly manipulative at times, Wang deftly handles the temporal shifts and keeps the pacing rather brisk. Definitely operating in his sensitive Joy Luck Club chick flick mode, it should make several more edgy indies like Princess of Nebraska possible in the future.

A solidly respectable intergenerational drama distinguished by two very fine co-lead performances, Secret Fan is recommended to those appreciate unabashed sentimentality in film. It opens this Friday (7/15) in New York at the Angelika Film Center.