Dec

2

2008

Eye for an Eye

Posted by luna6

Eye for an Eye
Movie: Eye for an Eye
Release Date: July 31, 2008
Country: South Korea
Director: Kyung-Taek Kwak, Kwon-tae Ahn
Starring: Suk-kyu Han, Seung-won Cha
Runtime: 101 min.
Editor Rating: 6.0
Users Rating: 6.67 1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars6 Stars7 Stars8 Stars9 Stars10 Stars (9 votes)

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Originality isn’t South Korean film “Eye for an Eye“’s forte, nor is it even part of its lexicon. Rather, the film happily barrows favorite moments from U.S. films like “Ocean 11″ and “Heat” and spins it into a mildly entertaining Korean cops & robbers thriller. The movie is co-directed by Kyung-taek Kwak and Kwon-tae Ahn. Kwon-tae Ahn, who served as an assistant director in Kyung-taek Kwak’s 2001 film “Friend” before directing the 2004 film “My Brother“, directs the first half of “Eye for an Eye,” with mentor Kyung-taek Kwak taking over for the film’s second half. Stylistically, there’s usually a love it or hate it relationship with Kyung-taek Kwak films. Personally, I group Kyung-taek Kwak with Jae-young Kwak (”My Sassy Girl“), two renown directors from the early “Hallyu Wave” that are also part of my self-penned “IM1PFATRASKB” club. The “IM1PFATRASKB” stands for “I Made 1 Popular Film and the Rest All Sucked Kimchi Balls”.

In “Eye for an Eye,” Capt. Sung-chan Baek is set to retire from the police force, but before he can hand in his official resignation, a money transport van is robbed with one of the criminals impersonating Capt. Baek himself. Shortly afterwards, over half a ton of solid gold is stolen right before the police’s eyes on Jeju Island. This makes the already short tempered Capt. Baek more livid and he vows to capture this brazen group of criminals.

Meanwhile, Hyeon-min Ahn (Seung-won Cha) is the mastermind behind the heists. The game that he is playing with Capt. Baek follows a script Hyeon-min Ahn carefully crafted over many years. His ultimate goal may not reside with Capt. Baek, but rather to seek out revenge against another looming figure from the criminal underworld … someone Capt. Baek may just want to capture himself.

With obvious influences from U.S. films “Ocean 11″ and “Heat,” as well as Korean films “Tazza” and “Public Enemy,” “Eye for an Eye” likely won’t win any “best original screenplay” awards. From a Korean movie-goer’s perspective, the lure of “Eye for an Eye” lies more so with Suk-kyu Han’s return to the bigscreen after a two year hiatus, as well as Seung-won Cha appearing alongside Han. Suk-kyu Han’s also gets a makeover as well, appearing with frosty white hair and a snazzy wardrobe. His temperament is more over-the-top than anything we have seen from him in the past (easy to forget this is the same Mr. nice guy from “Christmas in August“). Counter-part Seung-won Cha, delivers on his end as well, giving a more nuanced performance than what you may normally expect from him. While the two main stars did their part, the supporting performances was marred by Byeong-jun Lee’s (opera singer in A Bloody Aria) juvenile performance as a transvestite. His character was painfully stereotypical and, in a round about way, signified the lack of creativity in the movie’s script.

When the end credits roll around, your overall enjoyment of “Eye for an Eye” will depend largely on your tolerance for the movie’s heavy lifting from U.S. films “Ocean 11″ and “Heat”. If you could careless about this aspect and you generally enjoy action films, you’ll find yourself enjoying “Eye for an Eye”. If you’re a more discerning viewer and not a huge fan of action films in general, than the derivative nature of film will become a far bigger obstacle.


Buy “Eye for an Eye” from YesAsia

Cast:
Suk-kyu Han - Captain Sung-chan Baek
Seung-won Cha - Hyeon-min Ahn (mastermind)
Jae-gu Lee - Inspecter Park
Yun-tae Kim - Inspecter Kim
Jong-man Kim - Inspecter Oh
Jeong Yun - Inspecter Lee
Byeong-ok Son - Doo-su Kim (muscle)
In-gi Jeong - Min-chul Hwang (counterfeiter)
Seong-kyu Lim - Yeong-jae Cha (pick pocket)
Ji-seok Kim - Yu-gon Song (car theif)
Young-chang Song - Hyun-tae Kim (Hospital Director)
Hyeok-pung Kwon - Sang-mu Yoon (Hyun-tae Kim’s assistant)
Byeong-jun Lee - Hyung-woo / Antonio
Hae-suk Kim - Do-su’s mother
Mu-song Jeon - Hyeon-min’s father






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2008 Movie Reviews, Korean Movies, Movie Reviews, Movies |

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2 Comments so far

  1. 2 LifeFirst Says: December 11, 2008

    This movie was pure trash.

    You have 2 great actors….a good director…and this is what you come up with??

    Just garbage.

  2. 1 ed Says: December 6, 2008

    hehe i agree this was a cheesy B’s, luna. bought it anyway b/c of the stars — they don’t do shameless star vehicles like this ever, so it’s fun. (and why is Han Sukkyu always in some gay subplot now!)

    it’s kind of impressive when they showed this in a dance montage during Korean Film Awards. the variety of korean movies even in a bad year was stunning. you have both old and young leads, so many historical periods (30s, 60s, 70s), male and female, mainstream B & kitschy B. can’t wait to hear what you think of Dachimawa Lee!