Not being familiar with "The Spy: Undercover Mission" was not a hindrance for me when I decided to sit down to watch it. All that really was needed was the fact that the movie was South Korean. I am a big fan of Asian cinema, and South Korea make some really great movies. And the fact that this was an action comedy just made it so much more appealing.
The movie starts out at a really great pace, showing Chul-Soo (played by Kyoung-gu Sul) during an undercover operation gone bad, all the while his wife Young-Hee (played by So-ri Moon) is constantly calling him. Then it changes to Chul-Soo's mother's 70 year old birthday, where the wife is being scolded for not having had any children and with Chul-Soo running very late. So this pretty much sets the atmosphere of the movie and showcase what we can expect from very early on in the movie. And I must admit that I thoroughly enjoyed this introduction, because it puts the audience into the movie from the very beginning, and there is no having to sit through a prolonged introduction of characters and establishing of storyline.
Already from the very beginning it is quite obvious that the production value to "The Spy: Undercover Mission" is quite impressive. So you know that this is going to be a fun ride.
The characters in the movie were quite good, and also very likable. Chul-Soo was especially interesting, as he transferred the rules of negotiation even to his marriage. And his wife Young-Soo was also a good character, because she was a very good counter-piece of character to his character.
As for the cast recruited to perform in the movie and perform as the various characters and roles throughout the movie, well then I will say that they had a good assembly of good acting performers. It is always nice to see Kyoung-gu Sul in a movie, because he is a diverse actor. I can't really claim to be particularly familiar with So-ri Moon, but she performed quite well alongside Kyoung-gu Sul.
The storyline is a good combination of a good story, comedy, action and character development. So writers Su-jin Park and JK Youn really did come up with something quite clever and entertaining. And director Lee Seung-jun brought the script and storyline onto the screen quite well.
The action sequences are quite nicely choreographed and equally so executed on the screen by the performers. There is a good flow to them and they seem quite believable.
The movie gets wide and far around, because there are Koreans, Japanese, Thai, Chinese and Americans present throughout the course of the movie. So there is also an abundance of different languages being spoken, most of which is Korean, of course.
If you enjoy South Korean cinema, or Asian cinema in general, then you should definitely take the time to watch "The Spy: Undercover Mission".
