Impressive.. Mr.Won and Mr.Yoo...
I feel like the director is a big fan of the Bourne trilogy. The dry fight scenes without music, focusing on the raw sounds of a close quarter fight. The rattling camera angles, the zoom ins and outs. The car chase scenes and a pounding drum music. The earlier chase scenes with the monitors reminded me of the Subway chase in Ultimatum. I feel like some of the more heart-pounding scenes they could have added more ambient sounds and one shots of the civilians. (i would be either cursing or screaming if a car just drove by me in a tight alley)
Don't get me wrong I loved this film and Bourne, it was just something I didn't expect from Korean cinema and I was pleasantly surprised. The director took the best things from it and well integrated it into his own flavor.
Gong-Yoo really shined with the cold look of a trained specialist. He also showed signs of vulnerability and really sold the performance. I never thought he would do a film like this because of the 'pretty guy' impression I got from him in dramas such as '1st shop of coffee prince' however I did notice his talent for a more serious toned role such as in 'Silenced'.
Overall I am very satisfied after watching this film. It kept the very 'Korean' feel of the action film while taking bits from the template of Doug Liman's work.
