This review may contain spoilers
"A love story between a professional hitman and his next target."??? Nope. The synopsis is just misleading and you will grow old and die before you get to see any romance in this movie.The story is nothing fancy, nor original. In fact it can easily fall under the category "a dime a dozen". It's your typical action flick, with lots of bullets, knives and fists flying around, tons of red paint and zero emotions. If anything, both male and female leads' attempts to cry make for a good reason to laugh. Jang Dong Gun-shi, please don't cry! Ever again! You'll only ruin your image. Stick to what you do best, you were kind of cool in some of the fight scenes.
I can't say too much without spoilers, but the main characters are just not convincing enough. Their motivations, choices and reactions don't feel right.
The dialogues bounce between English and Korean, even though I can't see why that would be a plus for the movie. It felt more like showing off than a way to give authenticity to the characters. Heck, at some point they even throw in a bit of Spanish for the "Wow!" effect. Too bad it had the opposite impact, at least for me. On the bright side, if you understand English and basic Korean, you can give the movie a try even with no subs. You don't really need them, no food for though that you might miss here.
I guess guys could like "Crying Man". And girls, provided they are bored or have no choice (because of the guys LOL). Watch if you are a fan of action movies or of Jang Dong Gun (this being his comeback after 2 years).
Don't watch if you don't like violence and blood splashing on your screen! If you are looking for a profound, meaningful story, if you like complex characters or if you were just tempted by the synopsis, don't waste your time!
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Unfortunately, the film spent too much time focusing on the back story of these emotionally torn characters instead of hard core action. The hit man, Gon and the mother, Mo-Gyeong are in their own private anguish yet entwined because he decides to protect her. Defending her from his boss is when the action in the movie amps up. It just takes awhile to get there.
The depressed finality in Gon makes him more brutal. The fight sequences were graphic and the pools of blood extreme. Jang Dong-gun did a good job with Gon’s merciless demeanor while fighting. His resolve made him an invincible opponent. The director highlights this once when they cut away from an impending fight only to show the aftermath of his skills. I was impressed by the assumption that the result of the fight had a foregone conclusion.
There was a big array of gangsters in this film. I didn't particularly like the swearing tantrums of one of the bad guys because it seemed overly dramatic and silly. The menacing nature of another underling was better suited to the general tone of the gangsters. My favorite baddie was Choaz, an ex-associate of Gun's. They had the more entertaining interactions in the movie. It was a relationship I would have liked to have seen more of.
It was interesting to see the dialogue switch between Korean, English and some casual Spanish. However, the characters overall conversations were lacking. This film focused more on telling the story through facial expressions and actions than by using words. I couldn't help but think the director was trying to make it like his other film, The Man from Nowhere. It didn't play as well though.
There were some fast paced action scenes when they did play out. There was an impressive shootout scene, a slice and dice knife fight and a great cat and mouse sequence that reminded me of the Hollywood Die Hard films. Above all else, I would watch this movie for Jang Dong-gun’s action scenes. They were pretty amazing.
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Personally , I think this movie tried very hard to be a HOLLYWOOD-LIKE action movie and sometimes used English language for speaking where it wasn't actually needed !!! (e.g : why would two koreans speak English in Korea ?! ) Anyways , you're not watching a romance ! so don't wait so long for a love relationship between a killer and his next traget ... One of the things that made me disapointed about this move was first female lead ! I'm not against her acting (I'm not a fan either) BUT she really couldn't express her feelings as a mother who has lost her one and only daughter recently (or at least I couldn't feel her emotions) ! Through the movie , I kept looking at the time asking myself (how much does it take to be finished ?! should I play-forward ?! ) And I think the real reason for this feeling to the movie was the emotionless actings (specially those foregin actors who were aweful !) and the very slow progress of the story. I really wish they could direct it way much better and wouldn't let the movie to be filled of too many action scenes to get really intolerable !
Anyways , if you're a fan of action movies , watch it over times ! but If you care about the storyline like I do ... Just watch it once - twice to get the whole idea !
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One issue I had was that many scenes were so dark I was unable to make out the actors or action. While that is a good trick in some situations, I felt it happened too often in this movie and I wish I could have had a better view of the scene.
I liked the internal struggle the characters went through. It was believable that they would have made the choices they did as a result of their situations. Although you had to kind of accept that the main character was so talented that he could slip in and out of just about any place completely undetected, it was fun seeing an older actor tackle the action and physicality of the role admirably. Take that young boys!
I would probably watch this movie again, although not for a while. I don't feel as if I'd missed anything in the plot, it was easy to follow.
Watch No Tears For The Dead if you like realistic interpretations of grief, a smooth mixture of different ethnic backgrounds that is easy to follow, and older actors who hand down a convincing thug with grace.
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Average Fun
This is a pretty typical action packed movie but the gore was right up my alley. By the end I half expected the woman to have some sort of Stockholm syndrome. I was a bit disappointed with the end but there's not much of a logical way to change it. It always feels more convincing to me when I'm able to whence at the brutality that goes on in action thrillers and that's what happened here. Acting was about as average as can be. Unfortunately, nothing in the story really stands out but it's a good movie if you're looking for blood and nothing more lolWas this review helpful to you?
Correcta película de acción.
Cuatro años tuvimos que esperar para que Lee Jeong-beom nos ofreciera otra dosis de acción tras la apabullante muestra de talento que supuso El Hombre sin Pasado.Sin embargo, El Redentor es una película que se queda a medio camino por culpa de un guion que no termina de desarrollar sus posibilidades y por una excesiva tendencia al melodrama que resta fuerza y potencia al conjunto, sobre todo a un protagonista absurdamente consumido por una angustia exagerada y poco creíble.
Sin embargo, solo por las bien realizadas escenas de acción ya merece la pena. Aunque podría haber sido mucho más.
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