The Yellow Sea (2011)

Crappy film

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Movie: The Yellow Sea (18)Rating: 4.5/5Director Na Hong-jin, known for his mindblowing action thriller THE CHASER, returns with THE YELLOW SEA, another action thriller but with a lot of difference as well as excellence. Starring Ha Jung-woo and Kim Yoon-seok, it's a film every cinema enthusiast should watch. It's a masterpiece by all means and a film which isn't just a film but something more than that.THE YELLOW SEA is a film which presents human emotions in a very realistic manner. Ha Jung-woo is so excellent as Gu-nam that you'll definitely root for him. Kim Yoon-seok is very impressive as usual, and leaves and impact like the former. Rest of the cast is impressive as well.The character development is what needs to be praised. It's so good that you feel like you know the characters fully, and eventually you manage to develop a psychological relation with them, especially Gu-nam played by Ha Jung-woo. The film's biggest strength is the screenplay itself, as it contains all other brilliant elements a film of this genre needs. The cinematography is excellent and captures the journey of the characters very well. The action sequences are: extremely mindblowing and spellbinding! And due to this, they deserve a repeated watch. The editing is excellent, and I recommend you to watch the director's cut as it has a lot of depth. Can't say about the other version because I haven't seen that, but the director's cut being an amazing one is, I feel, better to watch.The emotions are very well brought out on screen. The film is exactly what you can expect from a South Korean filmmaker. It's emotional, thrilling, violent, action packed and what not. It has everything to keep you hooked to the edge of the seat. There's not even a single dull moment and the film is very enjoyable despite of being quite dark as well.THE YELLOW SEA is a perfect action thriller which shows what South Korean filmmakers are capable of. Definitely, with films of this kind, they will earn more respect in the eyes of viewers. Highly recommended!

First, I should mention that I am a Buddhist. That means that I usually find Asian action films more satisfying that American action films. In the west, dualistic good versus evil themes dominate violent movies. As long as "good" defeats "evil" in the end, we are supposed to go away satisfied, no matter how much suffering occurs between the opening and closing credits. In the east, there is a different morality. The Buddha taught that desire (attachment) is the root of all suffering. So, in an Asian action film we see characters who are done in through their own excessive desire/attachment. Since the things to which they are attached are often things we are trained to see as "good"---like love, wealth, family---the endings of Asian films can seem confusing or depressing.This film has the standard Buddhist themes. However, it has more. The characters---even some of the ones we might like to think of as "bad"---are surprisingly well rounded, with admirable qualities as well as less than admirable qualities. The social/economic system that requires that many live in poverty so that a few can live in wealth is properly criticized, but the film is not a Marxist polemic. As good Buddhists, we know in our hearts that balance in all things and detachment is the ideal, but the film makers still use every trick at their disposal to make us care about the main character and his quest.Regarding the film's length, I think it was perfect. This is a lot like one of the "Once Upon a Time In..." movies that shows you many different points of view of the same place/conflict/time. Yes, the length and differing viewpoints make it difficult to summarize the movie. However, real life can not be summarized, either. Real life is complicated. And by the time the film reached it inevitable conclusion (inevitable if you are a Buddhist) I felt as if I had finished reading a novel rather than watching a film. Despite the nice, tidy (Buddhist) ending, there was still lots left for me to mull upon.

I'll try to keep this review brief - you're encouraged to go see the film and judge for yourself;The plot is simple - and in-debt man from a northern province of Korea travels to Seoul to assassinate someone to pay his debts; the result is utter chaos as he tries to escape back home.Right, first off, if blood and gore scare you, this film is not for you - it's quite gruesome and relentless in the violence; The Yellow Sea does not compromise, does not glorify the hit-man (he's just a taxi driver), nor does it include any super-human feats of agility or other unlikelihoods in its plot. The roughness of the story and its characters is the real strength, and i have found myself watching intently (waiting for the usual ridiculous Hollywood stuff to happen) as i rarely do, but TYS continues to deliver without pause.Unfortunately not all is well; good characters, good lead, good pacing but some truly horrid camera work spoils what would have been a great film in its genre. Why the Koreans must have learned the Blair Witch Shake because, while it's reasonable for the camera to shake during chase scenes, it's not acceptable that any movement on screen (be it a man's mouth opening as he eats, or a car passing by) must be mirrored by the camera making the same movement.All in all, The Yellow Sea is gritty and dark like only the asians know how to make, but the camrashakey- end result is really bad, and makes this a film to recommend only to those who know what they are after.My final vote: 7/10 and who knows .. if it had been made properly ...

Directed by Hong-jin Na 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 hif life worse; but then he meets a hit-man who proposes to turn his life around by repaying his debt and reuniting with his wife, just for one hit (Plot).Once again, the filmmakers and actors (the same as The Chaser 2008) from South Korea have hit a huge great film again, nothing bad here, just in one word when the film end you will say wow !, one of the best thrillers i saw in my life, the film combines many things such as crimes, suspense, betrayal, bloody fight, hunts, struggle, patience, pain, sacrifice,car chases and more! I love everything in this film, first the story of the film and how the director tells in three major characters in 4 chapters, secondly linking all the three characters in many scenes and goals (Money!), thirdly the great performance of the three characters especially the(Jung-woo Ha and Yun-seok Kim) and finally directing and Screenplay was remarkable !.Director Na in his 156-minute film divided into four chapters ( Taxi driver, Killer, Joseon Clan and Yellow Sea) practically wrote about the history of the building of primal instincts, how they get awakened by chance, how they crash with other instincts and the ending to it all.Had he given more commercial consideration he could have made the running time more compact. The latter half of the film drags on a bit due to the repeated pattern of killings and chase. Therefore dividing the film in chapters to show three people's perspectives from beginning to end is 100 percent director Na's own doing.5/5