A Company Man
A Company Man
Director: Lim Sang-yoon
Year: 2012
Rating: 7.0
Korean corporations are legendary. If you
give them total loyalty, you get loyalty in return. Over time you will move
up the corporate ladder and reap the benefits. Hyeong-do is considered an
asset to his company; following orders efficiently without complaint and
the Chairman has great expectations for him. Upon a promotion he is taken
out for a celebratory lunch by his male and female co-workers all tidy in
their well-tailored suits. There is one small difference though between this
company and other Korean companies - though to what degree may only be dependent
on their product - and that is that every one of them is a professional killer
- from the receptionist to the head. They take contracts and carry them out
with beautiful team work. Their cover is that they make metal - shoot it
is more the case - and they have as corporate an office as Samsung. Now how
much director Lim Sang-yoon is making a political or satirical point about
the Korean work ethic I don't know - but he makes a pretty solid action film
in any case. There is a lot of action that is well-choreographed.
Hyeong-do though seems to be reaching a
tipping point and begins to think about retiring. He manages one hit in which
after it is done he is suppose to kill the hired help who is a youngster
new to the business but with hopes. But he can't bring himself to do that
and instead puts him into hiding and goes to take money from the boy to his
mother (Lee Mi-yeon) who was once a popular singer years before. Now Hyeong-do
commits another sin in the Assassin Handbook - he begins to fall in love
with her and sees himself opening a café on the beach with her. You
know where this is heading. The final confrontation that again may be satire
but is played straight is pretty amazing. Talk about workplace mass severance.
My main problem with the film is the actor
who plays Hyeong-do (So Ji-seob, winner of the New York Asian Film Festival's
Rising Star Award). He looks like a graduate of a Boy Band on qualudes. He
shows zero emotion throughout the film and says less than a lovestruck teen.
This is of course pretty common in hitman films - morose and good looking
- a winning combination. I expect this was at the behest of the director
but as a viewer it is difficult investing much sympathy or interest in a
character who seems to be bored all the time. But he is fine in the action
scenes of which there are many.