Ajeossi - 2010

In Italy it’s called “The man from nowhere". Why had I never seen Korean movies before? Lately I’ve seen a few and they’re awesome! Sure they are all starting at 11pm which is not the easiest hour when someone goes to school or has to wake up too early for work, so I can’t say if they were ever transmitted before or not. I can say that each one of those I’ve seen lately was really good. This one in particular was very tough, with criminals using children to work, make and smuggle drugs, and then they took their organs. It’s so awful I was looking at the screen thinking “kill him, kill the shit kill them all”, I would have screamed it out loud had it not been past midnight. The movie has lots of action, enjoyable, well made action, and lots of feelings around the figure of the protagonist. This Cha Tae-sik (Bin Won or Won Bin, depending on where I read it, with the result I don’t know which one is the name or the surname) has a sad past, is lonely and develops a strong affection for a neighbour, a sweet child called So-mi. Her mother is a drug addict and hides stolen drugs in his pawn shop without him knowing. This way he gets involved in this big mess. The child’s mother is tortured until she reveals where she has hidden it, then they kill her for her organs. They also abduct So-mi, and our hero wants to save her; he has had a special training, he knows how to find what he’s looking for, he has no fear or concern for his own safety, the only thing he cares about is to find So-mi. He was special forces once, but when his beloved pregnant wife was killed he lost everything.  He follows every track, doesn’t stop even after he’s shot. He finds someone that will help get the bullet out of him, but as soon as he can he goes back looking for the only person in the world he cares about. He finds out the whole horrid truth, saves a group of children, kills every criminal on his way, and goes on unstoppable. At the last battle, he’s shown a pair of human eyes, he’s told they are So-mi’s, he’s led to believe she’s already dead, and this breaks his heart, but for no reason he’ll let So-mi’s murderer escape. He fights all his men, then kills him. A big action scene, quick and well-done, engaging and yet bitter because he goes on as if it was his last battle; after he kills the last one he’s like completely out of energy, like he has no more reason to go on. This actor was good, I really liked him, he looked so sad, you could read it on his face even before he lift the gun to his own head, but I knew, well, I strongly believed So-mi could not be really dead, that would have been a terrible ending. Right there and then, when he has the gun to his head, he hears So-mi’s voice near him, he hides his gun, tells her something like “I’m dirty, stay away”, but she runs to him saying “you came to save me!” and hugs him and he cries and it’s so touching, and he wants to hug her back but doesn’t, like he can’t; the police arrest him, of course, but let’s him stay with her for a bit while, and the last scene is him asking his little friend if he can just hug her, just this one time, and the little thing lifts her arms in that irresistible way children do, he goes down to her height and hugs her tight, crying. I liked it. Well, I liked it because it was well done and I liked the actor protagonist very much. The story was so painful.

Edit a few days after: I’ve seen it again. Yes, it was painful, from beginning to end. The beginning, all the scenes between the little girl and him were touching; when he saw his painted nail and smiled it was touching, so meaningful, such a precious smile. When she said to the police that he was her father, was touching. When he walked away and the police understood it was a lie, it was touching. But when he heard the little girl’s voice, prisoner of those shit men and his eyes opened wide in fear, and then he ran behind the car that was taking her away, shouting for him to save her, even more now that I know what they did, his fear for her was totally heartbreaking. This actor is really good in this movie. Every scene with him is so heartbreaking it’s painful, and yet I kept watching because I couldn’t leave him alone..

This actor really makes me wish I could understand his language to watch this movie in original. Obviously I watched it dubbed in Italian, because if I had read all the subtitles I would have missed the expressions, his eyes, and that would have been a crime.