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Shiri 1999 |
Review by Jonathan Cornwell |
Directed by Kang Je-Gyu
R, 120 min. (strong violence, language) |
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Starring: Han Suk-kyu, Choi Min-sik, Han Seok-kyu, Song Kang-ho, Kim Yu-jin
Producer: Kang Je-Gyu
Screenplay: Kang Je-Gyu
Cinematography: Sung-Bok Kim
Distributor: Samsung Entertainment Group
Released: 2.08.02 (Limited)
(In Korean with subtitles) |
Rating:
 (out of ) |
Shiri, the highest-grossing film in Korean history, has a lot in common with the majority of Hollywood action films - mainly
lots of gunplay, explosions, violence - but it also has an intelligence and an engrossing factor that other similar films lack.
Director Kang Je-Gyu obviously idolizes the style of John Woo, but also has a statement to make to fellow Koreans about
the merits and precariousness of reunification. He uses this underlying theme to propel his picture - the audience can
understand both sides but is forced to choose right from wrong before its penultimate conclusion. His film incurs many
of Hollywood's strengths and few of its weaknesses. In short, it's a stylistic, violent, but thoughtful motion picture that
uses intricately-tangled characters to provoke a response from its audience.
The story clearly delineates between communist North Korea and democratic South Korea by contrasting dissimilar
characters. First, we meet Hee, a hardened killer from the special forces unit of the North Korean army who becomes
one of the most feared assassins in South Korea. Her training is brutal - emotion is drained and replaced with cold-hearted
calculation - and her successful missions have made her South Korea's number one enemy. To track her down,
Lee (Song Kang-Ho) and Ryu (Han Suk-Gyu), the country's best agents, are sent to find and eliminate Hee, who is also
known as "Shiri." After witnessing Shiri's handiwork first-hand, Lee and Ryu are unsure of how to locate her. Meanwhile,
Ryu and his fiance, Hyun (Kim Yun-Jin), who sells tropical fish, form a close bond with Lee, thereby relieving some of the
stress associated with their work. Eventually, Lee and Ryu must stop Shiri and her special forces companions from detonating
a powerful bomb during a reunification soccer match between North and South Korea, with dignitaries in tow. However,
a dark secret threatens to destroy the bond between Ryu, Lee, and Hyun.
Between quiet episodes of dinner talks and entertainment among Ryu, Lee, and Hyun, violent gunplay and impassioned
patriotism dominate the film's storyline. Each side, North and South, make arguments for and against reunification with
compelling evidence. However, the audience will eventually take sides with the freedom-loving South Koreans simply
because they don't resort to unimaginable terror to achieve their objectives. But a sympathy for Shiri, whose name
refers to a fish that swims up and down the divided Korean peninsula, is slowly crafted by Je-Gyu, thereby making her
eventual demise more complicated than first thought. Here we have a complicated story of friendship intermingled with
the duties of job and family, leading to a climactic showdown that has much more than just a country's fate at stake.
Shiri satisfies on two levels - the first being effective clashes between the North Korean special forces and Lee and Ryu,
the second on a psychological level between shifting loyalties and dismantled relationships. It is said that true love can
conquer all forms of evil, but here that theory is put to the test - can indroctrinated hatred for one people be overcome
by a deep, geniune love for one of those people? Shiri leaves us with an ambiguous, somewhat unsatisfying answer, however,
it seems both sides win and both sides lose in this thought-provoking thriller that has more going on than meets the eye
underneath its conventional storyline.
© 2002 Jonathan Cornwell
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 | Masterpiece - Film perfection |
 | Excellent - A Must See |
| Good - Highly Recommended |
| Fair - Worth seeing |
| Average - Viewable, but not recommended |
| Below average - View at own risk |
| Poor - Avoid at all costs |
| Very poor - An embarassment to the film industry |
| Zero | Awful - One of the worst films ever made |
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