I saw the trailer for this movie on my DVD of Swiri/Shiri. It looked interesting enough and came out the same year. Unfortunately, it isn't nearly as good. I'm not quite sure why, it has a lot of action and the story is ok, although there are some things that don't seem very logical (for example how the rebels openly attack an art gala while their target was one artefact. Why not simply steal it in a sneaky way at night, but hand it to one of them who is mixed among the hostages who easily point him out though? Or why do the rebels not protect their underground base with trip wires or anything like that? How can the main character have seemingly hours in the middle of a gun fight to exchange glances, not get hit and basically be ignored for hours if every rebel is shot in seconds? Most people with guns also seem to have terrible aim or can shoot 20 guys with 30 rounds).
There are lots of shoot-outs, but somehow they remind me more of HK-cinema. They seem impressive, but somehow you feel underwhelmed. While Shiri reminded me of Heat sometimes, this movie reminded me more of some Asian B movie with so so action-scenes where quantity goes over quality.
What's positive for me is the beautiful way things are filmed, Seoul(which seems to be Tokyo though) looks beautiful at night and the movie has that nice late 90s grainy look many Asian films had.
All in all not a bad movie and it certainly offers some entertainment, but other Korean movies convinced me more. "Brotherhood" contained themes of patriotism too, but in a less cheesy way. Still, you can see they learned since then and Korean action cinema has evolved a lot. I recommend "Yeolhansi" as the better movie about time travel, but it seems hard to find now.
There are lots of shoot-outs, but somehow they remind me more of HK-cinema. They seem impressive, but somehow you feel underwhelmed. While Shiri reminded me of Heat sometimes, this movie reminded me more of some Asian B movie with so so action-scenes where quantity goes over quality.
What's positive for me is the beautiful way things are filmed, Seoul(which seems to be Tokyo though) looks beautiful at night and the movie has that nice late 90s grainy look many Asian films had.
All in all not a bad movie and it certainly offers some entertainment, but other Korean movies convinced me more. "Brotherhood" contained themes of patriotism too, but in a less cheesy way. Still, you can see they learned since then and Korean action cinema has evolved a lot. I recommend "Yeolhansi" as the better movie about time travel, but it seems hard to find now.