The story of a cab driver in Yanji City, a region between North Korea, China and Russia. His wife goes to Korea to earn money, but he doesn't hear from her since in 6 months. He plays mah-jong to make some extra cash, but this only makes his life worse; but then he meets a hitman who proposes to turn his life around by repaying his debt and reuniting with his wife, just for one hit.
More startling than an unexpected punch in the noggin, Na Hong-Jin's unusual thriller could have the highest knife count this side of Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares. A violent thrill-ride to a dark new corner of Asian cinema.
This ultra-violent, slickly executed Korean crime drama shows once again that the genre is alive, well, and firing on all fronts outside western cinema.
Perhaps The Yellow Sea does not really hang together, and, yes, it could perhaps have lost 30 minutes. But its power and bite-strength are impressive.
The regional specifics of Gu-Nam’s nationality are a key plot point and while that makes The Yellow Sea less immediately accessible, it also makes it a richer, more rewarding film.
Highly efficient.
At nearly two and a half hours long, The Yellow Sea is overkill in every sense.
Scenes of high energy are constantly cut to ones of calm creating an appropriate sense of disjointed bewilderment in the protagonist.
General release. Check local listings for show times.