Just so...so bad

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Fast-paced and energetic, this Korean 'Bourne' is thrilling and exciting. The film's editing and photography is awesome. The film is very, very intriguing and there's a lot of information to digest which can be confusing at times. Ultimately, though, this is a fantastic action adventure with great acting by Yoo Gong (Train to Busan). Wonderful ending!

If you're a fan of over-the-top action movies of the 80s à la Arnie, with tons of fistfights, endless car chases, truly evil villains and implausible plot twists, then the past decade has been pretty boring for you. Hollywood has substituted fights with CGI and silly but funny spy flicks with interchangeable boring superheroes, Hongkong martial arts legends have aged beyond being able to convincingly deliver hard-hitting blows, and Bollywood action movies aren't for everyone because of the singing. Korea however still delivers pretty solid and technically brilliant action entertainment which keeps the CGI on a level with the acting. 'The Suspect' is probably the best recent example. If there was an international award for most insane car chase, it deserves it - twice, in fact, for a game of chicken where nobody chickens out, and the creative use of a pedestrian stairway. I haven't seen this many demolished cop cars since 'Gator'. It would also deserve the international award for the vilest villain, complete with satanic snickering, and the bad-assest agent, who is introduced pulling a beyond-belief stunt straight out of James Bond. Star Gong Yoo performed most of the stunts himself and studied Systema for the fight scenes, making them far better than anything coming out of Hongkong lately. 'The Suspect' is also likely to be the most heavily edited film I've ever seen, feeling like a non-stop two-hour roller-coaster ride - keep a good distance from the screen or you'll feel dizzy. The hero is of almost superhuman abilities, survives a thousand gunshots and stab wounds, and is of course motivated by revenge - so better don't expect much of a story. But for sheer action romp fun, 'The Suspect' can't be topped by anything Hollywood turned out of late.

THE SUSPECT is another in a long line of Bourne-influenced spy thrillers from South Korea, films that predictably mine North/South tension for their thrills. This one has much in common with THE BERLIN FILE in its tale of a North Korean defector who finds himself pursued by both the bad guys and authorities in his quest for vengeance.The worst thing about this film is the slightly confusing, complicated nature of the narrative - at least, when you watch it for the first time. It actually tells a simple, two-fold tale: there's a straightforward revenge narrative here mixed in with a mystery involving a conspiracy so that the viewer spends his or her time trying to work out who the bad guy is. The first half of the film is particularly muddled but it does all become clear towards the end, although it's probably a film you'll need to watch twice to get full enjoyment from. In fact, I did just that, and found myself enjoying it much more the second time around once I knew what was going on.THE SUSPECT is a very well made movie and it's absolutely action packed. There are car chases, fights and shoot-outs galore here, all dealt with with maximum intensity and captured in loving detail by the director. The cast are also strong in their roles, and as with a lot of these movies, there's a strong emotional core which gives it heart as well as muscle. However, be warned: this is a film that employs extreme shaky-cam throughout, so if you're not a fan of that particular style then this probably isn't the movie for you.

''The Suspect'' is a South Korean action-thriller in the vein of several contemporary spy movies like ''The Berlin File''. The movie tells the story of a North Korean defector who has once been a top special forces agent. After years of loyal service to his country, he became the victim of a conspiracy and purge. While the defector was able to make it to South Korea, his wife and young daughter were killed. Filled with grief and anger, the defector is now working as a chauffeur for a warm-hearted chairman who wants to help the North Korean people by developing a chemical product that could improve agriculture and prevent future famines. One day before a crucial meeting in North Korea, the chairman gets assassinated by some obscure members of the South Korean intelligence service. The defector witnesses the crime and fights the assassins but he can't save his boss. The dying chairman though gives him his glasses which hide the formula for the chemical product. The defector gets now hunted by the South Korean intelligence service who accuse him for the murder of the chairman and want to get the formula. The manhunt is led by a tough colonel who wants to eliminate the defector at all costs but who soon realizes that his boss is hiding a sinister secret and that things are more complicated than they appear. With the help of an ambitious journalist, the defector wants to uncover the secret of the chairman's glasses, clear his name and fight the true murderers and also find the man who killed his family.On the positive side of the movie, one gets a twisted and tension-filled story line. The movie is gripping and entertaining and never gets boring despite a running time of almost two hours and a half. The acting is solid and especially the defector, the colonel and the main villain are portrayed in authentic ways. The movie has some character development and spends enough time to add some depth by telling a few side-stories in form of flashbacks. The action scenes in the movie are of the highest quality and at least as good as similar contemporary Hollywood movies. One gets to see agile and yet brutal martial arts fighting scenes, brutal shootings and breathtaking car chases. Some of these scenes are unrealistic and over the top but they are definitely fun to watch. Despite all the action and brutality, the movies manages to keep a human core and comes around with a moving ending.On the negative side, I must admit that this movie obviously picks up several ideas from past South Korean but also international spy flicks. The story line of the movie is not really original and several parts of the film are in fact quite predictable for genre fans. The script could have been more innovative in my opinion.Despite this obvious flaw, genre fans should still watch this movie as it's among the better South Korean spy movies of the last years. It easily beats ''The Berlin File'' and is probably on one level with movies like ''New World'' but obviously less groundbreaking than ''Shiri''. For international fans, you will probably appreciate this movie if you liked the films of the Bourne franchise.