Product Details

• Actors: Dong-Kun Jang, Jung-Jae Lee, Mi-yeon Lee, David McInnis, John David Dix
• Directors: Kyung-Taek Kwak
• Format: NTSC
• Language: English, Korean, Russian, Thai
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• ASIN: B00005JP6R
• For more information about "Taepung" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars (2.5 STARS) Melodramatic and Overblown Korean Action Flick, February 26, 2007

By 

Tsuyoshi (Kyoto, Japan) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Taepung (DVD)

A group of pirates led by Sin (Dong-Kun Jang, "Brotherhood") attack a US cargo ship carrying nuclear matter and steal it after brutally killing the sailors. Gang Se-Jong (Jung-Jae Lee), tough agent in suit sent from the South Korean government chases Sin in Thailand, Russia and Korea, and finds that Sin's hatred toward South Korea originates in the tragic events that happened to his family while trying to escape from North Korea to South.

"Taepung" (or "Typhoon") is an action-packed film with political backdrop like another South Korean film "Swiri" (1999), but here the story's scale becomes bigger. You get what you would see in Jerry Bruckheimer-produced big-budget films - shoot-outs, explosions and special effects - and they are often more violent than Hollywood's counterparts. These actions are all competently done, but somehow fail to excite us because of their rushed pace. You need a moment to set up the situation of each action or you have to build up the tension before something happens, but things go too fast here.

It is regrettable because the back story of Sin's family is more intriguing and immediate than the main story about Sin's vendetta and Gang-Se-Jong's attempt to stop that during the "crash of the typhoons" showdown. Sin's character is very real as tragic anti-hero, which deserves better treatment than overblown and melodramatic actions.