BIG BAD FILM

South Korea, 2010. The action film industry has been on a roll since the 1999 revolution brought on by Kang Je-gyu’s SHIRI and its intense, immersive shootouts captured through a precise handheld camera. It had been the country’s first modern blockbuster, and many talented filmmakers followed in its footsteps, refining and expanding the possibilities of the genre in the country: in the span of six years, Ryoo Seung-wan delivered five formidable action movies, reaching unprecedented heights with A CITY OF VIOLENCE (2006) while Kim Jee-woon went from the stylishly brutal A BITTERSWEET LIFE (2005) to the over-the-top THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE WEIRD (2008). No one expected to see yet another revolution.

For his second feature, director Lee Jeong-beom decided to offer his own spin on the LÉON: THE PROFESSIONAL trope by removing any and all ambiguous elements from the characters’ relationship and injecting a hefty dose of unflinching, raw emotions, tuning his film’s tone to the crescendo the audience would experience alongside the protagonist. Celebrated actor Won Bin delivered a blistering, powerful performance as a solitary man whose heart is re-opened by a little girl and who must fight tooth and nails to save the last shred of his humanity. This ended up being his last acting work. Who else can boast they decided to end their short, dazzling career on such a high note?

THE MAN FROM NOWHERE is a film that found itself at the crossroads of two eras of action cinema. The era of entirely pre-vized formalist “violence movies” was about to begin, partly propelled by this film’s success. In these, the action would become the main attraction and little by little, the audience would become more interested in the way things are made (stunts, choreography, tactical realism, and so on) than in the reason they were made, operating a return to a way of watching action that harkens back to the days of silent stunt films. But the era of character-driven action dramas was also still alive, which meant the action, however spectacularly impressive, only existed to heighten the emotions carried by the plot and the characters. And what emotions! The film’s action is relatively sparse compared to more recent Korean genre fare, but each and every hit can be felt. In this world, every single death counts.

Lee Jeong-beom takes great care in establishing stakes that will carry the film to its brutal, harrowing, and memorable finale. Much has been said about the intensity of this climatic fight scene: the precision of the choreography, the feeling of controlled chaos that emanates from it, the pain felt throughout – emotional (mostly) for the protagonist, physical for his opponents – and the groundbreaking incorporation of Filipino Kali knife fighting to the proceedings. We have action director Park Jung-ryul to thank for that. Coming out of the Shin Jae-myung school of stunt work, he would go on to work on films such as NO TEARS FOR THE DEAD, THE PHANTOM DETECTIVE, and THE WITCH PART 1: SUBVERSION. Here, the keywords are efficiency and speed, and Lee’s direction enhances the viewer’s immersion tenfold. Cameramen are strapped to wires to follow the character’s falls, they make their way between fighters in close quarter combat, move to the ceiling in cubicle fights, or even become targets themselves for impressive POV shots.

No one expected another revolution, but the ripple effects of THE MAN FROM NOWHERE can still be felt today. -AR