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Released by: Well Go USA
Released on: 3/15/2011
Director: Jeong-beom Lee
Cast: Bin Won, Hyo-seo Kim
Year: 2010
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The Movie:
A mix of film noir atmosphere and John Woo inspired gun play, Jeong-beom Lee's The Man From Nowhere introduces us to a man named Tae-shik (Bin Won) who is a former special government agent. That career didn't end so well for him and since leaving that position, he's become a bit of a recluse spending his time running a low rent pawnshop in a less than perfect part of town. Outside of his regular customer base, Tae-shik doesn't have much human interaction, save from the occasional visit from a neighborhood girl, So-mi (Sae-ron Kim), who lives next door. The two soon start to bond - he's an outcast and, since she's rather neglected by her family and not particularly popular, so is she.
What Tae-shik doesn't know is that So-mi's mother (Hyo-seo Kim) has got some pretty serious ties and when those ties start to unravel and she gets herself into trouble, mother and daughter soon go missing. Tae-shik decides to put the training from his last job to use and head into the underworld to find his only real friend, but in order to make that happen he's going to have to deal with some nefarious mobsters and a few cops who would like to catch up with him. Tae-shik's deal, to deliver some drugs in exchange for So-mi's return, turns out to be nothing more than a set up to get rid of a rival drug dealer and he soon learns that times is very quickly running out. As Tae-shik searches high and low, his past comes back to haunt him and things become increasingly violent.
Mixing up elements of The Bourne Identity, Taken and a little bit of Taxi Driver, and skewing it through that odd sense of coldness that tends to come through in Korean crime dramas, The Man From Nowhere is a pretty well made film. It looks great from start to finish and is a very well put together picture. Some excellent camerawork helps bring us into the dark alleys and dimly lit buildings where Tae-shik's travels take him and a fine score accents the action scenes and more dramatic moments equally well. The action scenes and shoot outs are very well choreographed and the violence in the film has some pretty significant impact when it occurs (which is often).
The picture has its flaws, however. The film moves very quickly to the point where it skimps on character development at times and the character of So-mi is a little too wise for her years (which is for some reason a frequent problem with kids in action movies) and prone to melodramatic dialogue. A few cornball one-liners work their way into the script and you get the impression sometimes that certain shots are set up the way they are not so much for dramatic affect but to show off Bin Won's good looks.
With that said, our leading man is very good in the film. Front and center for the vast majority of the time he doesn't have quite the weight to his performance that he did in 2009's Mother but he's good in the part and deals out tough guy vengeance with style and charm. The rest of the cast are fine, if unremarkable, and the script is good if sometimes on the predictable side. No one is winning any awards for originality here and we've seen a lot of this material before, but Jeong-beom Lee's film is fast paced, exciting, tense and most importantly very entertaining.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The Man From Nowhere arrives on Blu-ray in an AVC encoded 2.35.1 1080p high definition widescreen transfer. You'll notice as the film plays out that the colors have been tweaked and played with, giving things a slight oversaturation but in the context of what the filmmakers are going for here, it works. There's a welcome coat of grain evident throughout and detail is generally pretty strong, particularly in close up shots. Contrast and black levels look good and there are no problems with mpeg compression artifacts, edge enhancement or heavy noise reduction worth complaining about. All in all, this is a pretty nice looking effort from Well Go USA.
Audio options are supplied in Korean or English dubbed DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio tracks, with optional English subtitles. Unless you've got an aversion to subtitles, don't bother with the English track as it doesn't suit the film nearly as well as the original language mix does. Regardless, both tracks sound quite good though there are a few spots where the sound effects tend to spike a bit in the mix. Aside from that, the audio is punchy and strong with solid directional effects aplenty. Optional Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo tracks are also provided in both English and Korean language.
Extras are slim but there is a seventeen minute Making Of featurette that showcases some behind the scenes footage and shows us what it was like on set. Aside from that, look for a teaser, a trailer, and a highlight reel featuring clips we already saw in the movie. Menus and chapter stops are also provided and all of the extras are in standard definition.
The Final Word:
If it's a bit predictable, we can forgive the film as The Man From Nowhere makes up for its flaws with some great tensions, nice camerawork and some really effective atmosphere. This isn't a film that reinvents the crime genre, but it's an entertaining and well made thriller worth a look for fans of this kind of material. Well Go's Blu-ray is light on extras but it looks and sounds good, making this the ideal way to see the movie.