Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
excellent asian action/fantasy, June 5, 2005
It is 2009, and the Japanese Bureau of Investigation branch in Seoul (a large city in greater Japan [Korea]) is trying to ferret out a group of Korean terrorists who believe that Korea should be a separate nation. The universe in this film flows forward from an event in 1909 history that eventually determined Korea's freedom from Japan -- but what if it happened differently, as it does in this film. All history is different. Japan and the USA together won WWII. The nuclear bombs dropped on Berlin, not Japan, etc. But what if, and this is where it gets nice and Philip K. Dickian (see Man in a High Castle), somehow, history had been changed deliberately. What if the Koreans could go back in time and set it right. Anyway, the action sequences are very nicely done. If I have one complaint it is that the hero is so good at looking wistful that it is overused. Too many slow down moments of wistful eye tearing. Special kudos to the actor who played the Japanese JBI partner of the hero. He was good. I and my family recommend this film to anyone who likes action and fantasy.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting topic, December 23, 2004
I rented this movie and enjoyed it enough to look in to buying it. If you're a sci-fi fan you'll like it. Some say you need an in-depth understanding of Japanese/Korean politics to grasp it but I don't think that's the case. I thoroughly enjoyed the flick and it actually inspired me to look up more information about the tense relationship between these 2 countries.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not too good, not too bad either..., January 6, 2005
Imagine Japan allied herself with the US and won WII instead of losing it. Imagine the nuclear bombs being set upon Berlin instead of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And a Korea which is not Korea as is now, but a colony of Japan. Lee Si-Myung's 2002 flick seems lost between an action thriller and a sci-fi flic, and for the most parts of the first half of the story, it spends pretending to be the former. If you haven't read this sypnosis or any other you'll be forgiven into thinking this just another plain action drama. There's a huge set piece at the start of the movie where the nationalist "terrorist" groups break in for a mission, but after that the story pewters off into more routine and leisurely pacing.
Masayuki Sakamoto (Jang Dong-Gun) and Shojiro Saigo (Toru Nakamura) are two cops who are investigating the Korean terrorist organization Hureisenjin's latest exploits. Sakamoto is really Korean, although he works for the Japanese government; he couldn't care less about the Korean nationalist movements, that is, until this case, when something sinister seems to be lurking beneath the surface, and which the Japs seem to be trying to cover up.
To be really honest, the film has a good premise, but unfortunately somewhere along the line, it lost its promise and became, very merely, one megabuster which is interesting while it lasts but not very brilliant or bright in execution. Lee's direction became predictable as time went on, as does the plot once the central story became known midway through the 2-hour long film. There's some soppy melodrama going on as well, as well as a good-bad schism which favors the Koreans over their Japanese counterparts. All in all, if you are a Korean patriot, you may approve of the screenplay, but I for one find the melding of sci-fi and action ultimately unconvincing. But still, it isn't that bad a movie, although I won't say it's fantastic either. An ammo-laden film.
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