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| NOWHERE TO HIDE. Starring - Jang Dong-Kun - Ahn Sung-Ki - Jung Hoon Park - Ji-Woo Choi. Director - Lee Myung-Se. A known drug boss is murdered in broad daylight but there are no witnesses and no leads. Detective Woo from the homicide squad is assigned to the case and along with his men they set about finding the killer. Woo is unrelenting in his quest and eventually discovers that the murderer is the infamous drug lord Chang Sunmin Nowhere to hide is about as basic as you get when it comes to storylines, it is a good old fashioned tale of cat and mouse with the bullish Woo (Ji-Woo Choi) moving from one lead to the next with brutish charm. Torturing his suspects with both mental and physical abuse, his on screen presence is quite simply intense. You just don’t know what he will do next, will he use his favoured mace gun in gaining the information he needs or will he just treat them noodles? Along for the ride is Kim (Jang Dong-Kun) who is more like a disgruntled samurai rather than a police officer, always at Woos’ side and always ready for a good fight. Their prey Chang Sunmin is portrayed by one of Korea’s more noteworthy actors Ahn Sung-Ki but he is given little to do with just the odd menacing look. Come to think of it I cannot even remember one line on camera from him. Nowhere to hide moves along at a fair old pace filmed with style and substance, sometimes gritty, sometimes funny and sometimes poignant without ever being pretentious. Lee Myung-Se has used every camera angle in the book and then some, his ideas omit a sense of energy and freshness. When combined with the quirky soundtrack this often gives the viewer a sense of bewilderment but in a comical way. I really enjoyed this movie, it felt like a directorial debut trying to impress on every level without ever trying too hard to develop the story and lose the viewer. For some reason the lead actors are billed as Jang Dong-Kun and Ahn Sung-Ki. Strange simply because these guys are merely supporting actors and the real star of this movie is Ji-Woo Choi whose name you will find in tiny writing on the back cover of the dvd. He isn’t even mentioned in the cast files. Why? I can only deduce that he is simply too ugly to appeal to the Korean cinema audience. Shame as this guy is fantastic, his face is so out of character for this type of movie that it makes his acting ability stand out even further. If you like Takeshi Kitano, or Luc Besson movies then you will love this gem of a title. Brilliant without ever trying too hard. 8********stars. |
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