Rated: MA15+
Written and Directed by: Won Chan Hong
Produced by: Chul Yong Kim
Starring: Jung Min Hwang, Jung Jae Lee, Jeong Min Park.
Korean with English subtitles.
‘You don’t need to go this far.’
Deliver Us From Evil is the sort of gritty crime-thriller I hope to come across and will be going on my, ‘Best Thriller Movies,’ recommendation list.
Starting in Tokyo, In-nam (Jung Min Hwang) is an assassin for hire.
He has one last job, then he’s done.
‘You got a job. A big one.’
Then it’s time to dip his toes into the ocean.
In-nam doesn’t look like a knife-wielding assassin. But when there’re shots fired in the dark, we see his blood splattered face – shh… shh… he says, as the life drains from his target.
Cut to Bangkok and the kidnapping of a young nine-year-old girl.
His daughter.
Enter Ray-The-Butcher (Jung Jae Lee). Blood brother to his last target. A man In-nam should have killed a long time ago. A man who won’t stop.
In-nam is an assassin with a history. He doesn’t get to just leave.
The story has several threads chasing In-nam (it really does feel like he’s hunted by the narrative): he wants to retire, he’s running to escape his past and people with scores to settle; but more than anything, he wants to save his daughter.
He makes contact with people in Bangkok, leading to lady-boy Yui (Jeong Min Park), his guide. So there’s all the action of the backstory of his daughter’s kidnapping while In-nam and now Yui are chased by this mad-dog gangsta, The Butcher.
It’s non-stop set on the streets of Bangkok all captured by cinematographer Kyeong Pyo Dp Hong (he was nominated for an Academy Award for his work on, Parasite) – non-stop action filmed using a stop motion technique so the hand-to-hand combat in hotel hallways or the confined space of a lift are all captured in detail for the audience to appreciate.
And then there’s the scenery from Japan to Korea to Thailand with the film captured in Bangkok immediately recognisable with the heat of burnt orange streets and a machine gun fight from the back of a took-took.
The film isn’t this superficial or flat feeling killing spree – there’s also these moments of humanity: the sweetness of a young girl and the assassin with dead eyes coming alive to save his daughter.
I couldn’t look away from the visceral carnage yet got teary because there’s a good story at the foundation of all the action.
And there’s care taken with the filming: a fleeting shadow, the slowing of a scene to the jolt of a car crash. There’s nothing held back except holding off from a complete gore-fest so I was able to keep watching – a fine line between gross and gritty artfully kept so torture, stabbing and child organ farming are all part of the story but instead of sickening, the grit adds to the suspense.
Brutal, but if you’re a fan of a gritty crime-thriller, you’re in for a treat.