So. Much. Blood.
I love gangster movies. Let us not pussyfoot. I love movies where nefarious things are afoot and we’re following the bad guys. I root for the crooks.I love it when a plan comes together.
Yellow Sea is a pretty damn fine gangster flick. It’s ultra-violent, which is popular in modern Korean cinema, and the violence is kept disconcertingly realistic. There are just about no guns in this movie – it’s all chef’s knives, hatchets and baseball bats. Well, once it’s a giant soup bone, but generally it’s knives, hatchets and bats. If you are delicate of constitution, this might be a tough sit for you. My beloved watched a lot of it through her fingers.
Our protagonist drives a taxi and has a gambling debt he can’t pay. He’s part of a Chinese-Korean monority that I wasn’t aware of called Joseonjok. The Joseonjok live in China and are looked down on in Korea. The group is poor and plagued by a malevolent thugocracy. The primary economic activity seems to be dogfighting. Dogfighting and all manner of shady business.
Our hero drinks too much, and he doesn’t clean his hovel, and he’s continuing to gamble away the pittance he makes driving his cab. Potential salvation arrives in the form of a very dangerous and charismatic gangster introduced to him by the holder of his debt.
He’s asked to go to Korea to commit a murder in exchange for a clean slate. He is not smart enough, or savvy enough to turn down the offer. He isn’t a criminal, he’s just a jilted spouse who can’t get over the depression that took root when his unfaithful wife left him for Korea. In fact, it’s the opportunity to go to Korea and look for his lost spouse that decides his fate.
He’s not prepared for the job, and it goes spectacularly wrong. To say more is to spoil, but it’s fair to say that some of the most jarring chase scenes and fight sequences I’ve ever seen result.
The intrigue gets a little out of hand in the second act, with maybe a few too many twists to follow, but this is an action picture and the action is first-rate. Inured as I am to movie violence, I was gobsmacked quite a few times.
I don’t know what the plans are for this movie in terms of distribution, but if you get the chance it’s worth watching. I’m sure it will be on-demand in some fashion in the next 6 months, and if you’re the kind of person who doesn’t mind a little carnage with their social commentary and criminal derring-do, then you owe it to yourself to watch ‘Yellow Sea.’
