What a beautiful movie!

Very well executed

Too much of everything

Purely Joyful Movie!

Movie: The Berlin File (15)Rating: 4/5South Korean action thrillers are quite interesting to watch. Indeed I prefer watching mostly and rather, only action, drama and thriller films. So when I came across this action thriller THE BERLIN FILE starring one of my favourite actors Ha Jung-woo, I couldn't resist myself from watching it, and that too in high quality. However, I felt quite confused at times due to the script being convoluted to a great extent. What keeps you engaged is the brilliant action. THE BERLIN FILE has really brilliant action sequences, and that's a major reason why one finds it somewhat easy to ignore the flaws. Visually, the film is a gem. Story wise, it's a masterpiece. Execution wise, it's great but not excellent. Ha Jung-woo is extremely amazing in the role he plays. He's simply the best thing about the film. Just watch him in the action sequences and in the climax: his performance literally will blow your mind. Jun Ji-hyun is decent, and so is Ryoo Seung-bum: he's a firecracker when it comes to his act which he handles perfectly, and that's something which makes his character realistic.The director Ryoo Seung-wan does a decent job by handling the screenplay and direction well. The editing too is fine. But as said before, the execution is the only thing which needed to be better as in the beginning, after the first scene, it's difficult to follow the story as it keeps getting convoluted and things get more complicated when scenes end without much explanation. However, the film never loses its focus and manages to entertain you, leading to a thrilling climax which makes you forget rather every single flaw.THE BERLIN FILE is a powerful, breathtaking and intense action thriller which is a must see for the lovers of this genre. For others, I can easily recommend it, though they won't be easily able to follow the film in the beginning. Still, watch the film because the kind of action it offers is the one you won't have seen before.

What do you get when you mix the Bourne movies with a North/South Korean spy story? This film.A North Korean spy in Berlin finds himself in a whole world of trouble, involving betrayal and lots of action. The complicated story is something that makes sense for a political based spy thriller, but can get pretty convoluted at times. I would say that I know more about North/South Korean relations than there average person, and i'm no expert, but I still found myself lost at times. Lot's of different characters interact and double cross and it can be hard figuring out who wants what and who did what. But I think at the end of the film I kind of got the main idea. I can certainly see this being a problem with some audiences. The action is this is pretty great. The fights and shootouts are tightly shot and well directed, making it feel like a Hollywood film, in a good way. Nothing feels cheap or cheesy. It's gritty and hard hitting, just how I like my action.I guess at the end of the day, there was just something missing for me. I can't quite pinpoint it, which is useless in terms of me giving a clear opinion in this review, but I can't help it. I enjoyed it, but I don't know if it's under rated and recommendable in the way that a film like The Man From Nowhere is. Perhaps the confusing plot just kind of took me out and had me less connected, leading to the big twists being less hard hitting. Either way, I would say watch this if you're up for the challenge or figuring out a highly political and twisting plot. It's entertaining and well made, which is great to see. It also sets itself up for a sequel, which would be interesting to see. Another example of good Korean film making.

It is time for North Korea to abandon Communism and defect to the South! Just as DDR abandoned Communism and joined democracy, so should DPRK become part of the South. One Korea in capitalist heaven! As far as the film goes, it was made to ease that transition, just as the Gangham style conquered to world so will North give up Communism and become part of the united Korea.The film was just another film of action. Seen many like that in my past.I would love to add more lines of text but I am not sure what to add, because film was average.

Be prepared to invest sufficient attention into an arduous story of North- and South-Korean secret service affairs. Mostly North-Korean, because they are the main characters of the story."Chekism" (see Wikipedia for definition), triggered in North Korea by the USSR intrusion, is a sort of state-mediated robbery and state-provided terrorism in favor of Pharaoh's family and a narrow circle of his guards and buddies. Having being deprived of usual and legal economical levers, chekist state can only evolve through criminal activities of any kind. Consequently, all people, engaged in these activities, are criminals by definition - by the very fact of their participation, whether it is conscious or not. Nature doesn't care if something happens consciously or not, it just records the instances. The resulting outcome is equitable on a large time scale: those, who participate in crime, have no further chances to participate in evolution. This simple (though not evident) law of nature is not declared explicitly, but in many South-Korean films it's pronounced rather distinctly. And this is what makes them always sensible, yet often unexpected.