The Man From Nowhere Review

• 2nd Apr 2011

The Man from Nowhere is a Korean thriller as former secret agent Cha Tae-sik (Bin Won) comes out of hiding to retrieve a kidnapped girl from a drug gang. The film opens with a drug bust that goes very wrong as an exotic dancer steals heroin from gangster, Man-seok. She hides the drugs in a bag and pawns it to Cha Tae-sik who operates his shop out of the same building she lives in. Her daughter Jeong So-mi has taken a shine to the withdrawn Cha and befriended him. The gangsters kidnap So-mi and her mother and force Cha to do a drop to ensure their safety.  Following the drop, which is in fact a double cross, he discovers that the mother has in fact been killed and stripped of her organs for re-sale. Cha Tae-sik is now forced to return to the violence that filled his former life as he eludes the police and attempts to recover the daughter.

Korean cinema has now reached the mainstream with such hits as Oldboy and I Saw the Devil all garnering superb international reviews. The Man from Nowhere is more of this line of highly stylish action thrillers that have an amazing content of extreme violence. The lead performances by Bin Won and Sae-ron Kim as So-mi are superb as they develop a Leon style relationship that ultimately brings Cha to tears. The other knockout performances are by the gangster brothers Man-seok and Jong-seok both insane sadists who deal in child slavery and human body organs.

Cha Tae-sik is an unknown quantity from the moment you meet him and it’s clear that you really shouldn’t annoy him too much. His character is a kind of Korean Jack Bauer in that he will destroy anything in his way once on a mission. As the gangsters arrive at his pawnbroker shop he takes a knife away from one of them with such speed that you’re better off leaving and calling it a day. Ninety minutes of screen time later and he has blown up a meth lab, released all the children from captivity and killed absolutely everyone.  The knife fight sequence that is the climax is something to behold as it even puts Quentin Tarantino well in his place.

The mainstream action film has now become a watered down version of what was delivered during the last great era of the 80s. Films such as Lethal Weapon delivered a far more extreme type of violence than you will currently find in any Hollywood action picture. Major studios seem uneasy about backing any project with violence that isn’t fantasy based or a comic book. Such massive action stars as Schwarzenegger, Stallone, Norris, Van Damme and Seagal simply don’t exist today. These actors performed in ultraviolent thrillers but still delivered major box office success. Action today is left to the likes of Salt and The A Team which has adopted The Matrix approach to insane visuals over realistic violent content.

Supreme action cinema has now re-located to Asia with Korea and Hong Kong delivering the goods that we used to get from Hollywood. Films such as The Man from Nowhere deliver in every way both in terms of action and narrative. Unlike Hollywood products The Man from Nowhere isn’t trying to patronise its chosen audience or seek an age limit that will possibly ensure larger returns. This film is for adults who want the kind of escapist entertainment they had 20 years previously. The content may be extreme but the style in which it’s delivered ensures that it’s way above exploitation. The careful consideration of every image is easy to recognise as director Jeong-beom Lee has delivered a brilliant film that is a must for all fans of extreme action cinema.

Aled Jones