Secretly, Greatly
Director: Jang Cheol-soo
Year: 2013
Rating: 7.5
Country: Korea
This is another one of those Korean films
that I have come across recently that looks to be a comedy for much of its
running time and then very much isn't. What Korea still has going for it
film wise is a Cold War between its northern neighbor and itself. Ours came
to an end when John Le Carre stopped writing about it and moved on to terrorists
but Korean has it in spades and a number of their films reflect this. This
is a good one playing on both their paranoia of the North as well as the
sense that their way of life is vastly superior. The goofy looking guy in
the poster is a North Korean spy. Don't let the look fool you. He is the
best trained fighter and killer among them all. The actor is Kim Soo-hyun
who I discovered is a huge TV star in Korea and I can see why. He is terrific
in this as both the fool and the killer.
He is part of the 5446 group of spies. All
killers, brought up in the training camps dedicated to the cause and the
Dear Leader. Willing at any moment to sacrifice their lives. Or to kill if
given the instruction. Won (Kim Soo-hyun) is the best, a legend - and they
send him to infiltrate the South by posing as a civilian. He takes on the
guise of a mentally challenged young man who takes on work at a small candy
and smoke shop run by an elderly lady. He waits for his instructions. And
waits. He has to always act the fool, allow the children to throw stones
at him, fall down twice a day, often down the stairs, urinate publicly once
a week, keep on the harmless smile. And he waits. In his green sweatsuit
and Bruce Lee haircut.
Two years pass. He begins to know everyone
in this small lower-class neighborhood - the woman who wants to become a
singer and has her cleavage on show, the young woman who says hello to him
every day on her way to work, the barber who is in love with a widow, the
old woman's son who goes after crooks who bully her and gets beat up for
his troubles. It is a small neighborhood that looks after its own,
where everyone knows everyone and he has become a part of it. Then two other
young spies show up to live in the area as well - one who has been instructed
to become a music star though he has no talent, another younger one who has
enrolled in high school. Won wonders if they have come to kill him, watch
him or will they have an assignment. Instead, they become friends. But times
change, politics change - the 5446 Group has become an embarrassment. Finally,
after two years a signal is sent to all three of them. Kill yourselves or
we will come to kill you. Definitely not a comedy anymore.
