Ui-hyeong-je is the original title according to imdb, but I know it as Secret Reunion. I liked it, it was well done and well acted. It's a South Korean movie, apparently, and I just saw it on tv. Obviously I saw it in Italian, I don't understand Korean, and I liked it a lot. It was very nice, funny and moving, a spy-action movie... a little bit of everything, in a way.
It starts as an intelligence service case: South Korean agents are trying to catch a famous and extremely dangerous killer they call Shadow. He's on a mission to kill traitors of his Country North Korea. He's helped by two North Korean spies, two young men, not knowing that one of them is passing information to the police and will then stay there, in South Korea. He will be found again by Ji-won years later, and will 'justify' himself saying that he wanted to live, and for this it will hurt Ji-won to see him dead, killed by Shadow, forever on his mission.
Ji-won is the other young man, but he's not like Shadow, a cold-blooded assassin enjoying too much his work, killing every South Korean he meets on his way without the slightest remorse. Ji-won does not like it, thinks it's not right to kill when not necessary, and saves a child that Shadow had not yet seen before escaping. Shadow clears his own way shooting and killing. Han-gyoo has been hunting him down for some time, but can't get him even now. He gets thrown out of the police, blamed for the bad failure, while Ji-won stays in South-Korea, going on with his spy-work. He doesn't want to betray his Country, ever, and also his wife and just born daughter are still there, and if he was declared a traitor they would be killed.
Six or seven years pass, Han-gyoo is working as a sort of private detective, finding and bringing back foreign wives, usually vietnamese, when they run away from their new home or maybe are brought away to be sold again. One night he gets in a fight and he's doing badly, when one of the workers there surprisingly helps him.
As soon as they lay eyes on each other, they immediately recognize the face they saw six years before. Ji-won saw him giving orders that day, and Han-gyoo saw him get away that same day, but they don't know they've been recognized. Each of them thinks he has the advantage. Han-gyoo wants to keep him close to get to Shadow, thinking they still work together, while Ji-won thinks the private-detective-thing is just an undercover, that he's still one of the intelligence. Ji-won starts working with him, saying he needs money, and he does. What is not yet known, is that he needs money to try to have his family be brought here by a South Korean organization. First of all he thinks of saving them.
They start working together, Han-gyoo jumps for anything, he's worried of what the others might do, thinking him nothing more than an assassin. Ji-won starts spying on him, and learns of his life, of his character, and is not as much inclined to spy on him anymore. They get to know each other a little, enough to realize the other is not the enemy, the monster they had imagined. When Han-gyoo's colleagues know of Ji-won, they want to follow him and get him, and they can do it thanks to the chip in his watch.
Now things are changed, though. Han-gyoo doesn't want him caught, and tries to call him to warn him, then runs to get to him before the others. Ji-won has received a new message from Shadow, supposedly with a new mission from their Country, but only after Shadow kills his man he learns the truth, that Shadow received no new mission, he works for himself, obsessed to kill everybody he believes a traitor. Han-gyoo comes to stop him, not seeing Shadow. Knowing he's there, and knowing Shadow will kill him himself if he doesn't do anything, Ji-won uses his knife on him, in a very intense scene that however did not fool me. I didn't know why, but I knew he would not have killed him. Come on, of course not, what kind of an ending would have that been, huh?!?
So, now that Han-gyoo is on the floor all blood-dirty, Ji-won confronts Shadow, has him admit he did not receive official orders, and at some insinuation of the other asks what happened of his family and Shadow says something like What do you think? and Ji-won fears they're dead and fights with him and they both fall down from the roof, before Han-gyoo back on his feet could prevent it. We see now that Ji-won had kept the knife from the blade hurting his own hand.
All the cops go downstairs and see only Ji-won on the floor, not knowing if he's dead or alive, because Shadow is still alive, hidden, with every intent of killing both Ji-won and whoever comes near before dying. Han-gyoo won't be stopped, however, and runs to Ji-won, and finally succeeds in killing Shadow.
At this point they try to trick us for a moment, to make us believe that Ji-won died and went to meet his dead family, but that end would suck, so I just waited. Han-gyoo is back to his work with public commendation, and he receives a letter from Ji-won telling him to go visit his daughter, now living in England with her mother and stepfather. He goes, and on the plane he sees Ji-won and his family, a cute little smiling girl :-)
Happy ending for all ! Yayyyy :-)
Kang-ho Song as Han-gyoo
Dong-won Kang as Ji-won
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