The Man From Nowhere
Lee Jeong-beom
The story: Cha Tae Sik (Won Bin) operates a small pawnshop in a dingy building and lives a quiet life. His only friend seems to be a little girl, So Mee (Kim Sae Ron), who lives nearby. When her junkie mother, Hyo Jeong (Kim Hyo Seo), steals drugs from some very nasty criminals, So Mee ends up being abducted. Cha vows to find her and will stop at nothing to do so.
If you need an actor to hold your attention on screen for two hours, Won Bin is your man. Even with an unkempt head of hair obscuring half his face, he prompts Hyo Jeong to remark that he is “easy on the eye”.
His breakthrough role came as a spoilt, rich young man in the romance weepie Autumn In My Heart (2000). He could easily have built a career acting in these idol dramas but instead of coasting along on his looks, he has chosen to pick roles which challenge him as an actor.
In this regard, he reminds one of Brad Pitt, who has sometimes defied expectations by taking on quirky characters in films such as True Romance (1993) and 12 Monkeys (1995). Happily, both actors have shown that they have the acting chops to pull off these challenges.
Memorably, Won Bin’s last role was as the mentally unstable son in Bong Joon Ho’s crime drama Mother (2009). Here, he is the mysterious man from nowhere who gets involved in a rescue mission because of his friendship with a little girl.
When we first meet him, there is a haunted look in his eyes. Cha is someone who has withdrawn from the world because of a personal tragedy but finds himself pulled back into it by So Mee, who latches on to him as she is shunned at school and neglected by her mother.
Kim Sae Ron, last seen as a girl abandoned by her father in the emotional drama A Brand New Life (2009), is adorable without being cloying and there is a gentle sweetness to her unlikely friendship with Cha. Because of the poignant ties between the two, I found myself more emotionally invested in this film even though the story arc is reminiscent of the action thriller Taken (2008), in which Liam Neeson is the distraught father searching for his abducted daughter.
Writer-director Lee Jeong Beom has also upped the stakes by giving the audience some truly vile villains. These evil criminals traffic in human organs and even involve children in their nefarious schemes. Admittedly, it is all rather manipulative but one hardly minds since these broad strokes add to the well-paced and gripping thriller by making it even more intense.
Cha’s transformation from a ghost of a human being to a relentless force of vengeance is exhilarating to watch. He turns out to be an ex-special ops agent with almost superhuman reflexes and Lee lines up several crackerjack sequences showcasing Cha’s skills with the knife and the gun.
The film was both a box-office and critical hit in South Korea. It was the top-grossing film last year and also swept seven awards at the Korea Film Awards, including Best Actor for Won Bin.
He might be playing a man from nowhere but he is definitely going places.
(ST)