Jaw-dropping Violence, Great Acting, and Fantastic Cinematography

Man, this movie just kicked my rear end. I needed to take a breather just to kind of settle down and relax after it ended. LOL. Just great, great acting by the main protagonist, Ha (guy who played the serial killer from The Chaser).

Na does an amazing job of capturing harsh realities of Chosun Koreans, who migrated to China during early-to-middle part of 20th century during times of instability due to many wars.

Cinematography is amazing although one part that I didn't particularly like was the "shaky cam" style car chase scene, but I guess that's common among many directors and popular (think Bourne-style chase but even more shaky!) nowadays. Other than that, Na incorporates a lot of in-your-face, close-up style filming in many scenes with harsh contrast to accentuate character's emotion and to build realism.

Plot? Well, I won't say much because it's not that hard to understand. There is one twist that happens about 1/3 of the way, and that's when the movie kicks into a hyperdrive, and all h#ll breaks loose.

The Chaser did a better job of building a suspense pretty much right from the beginning and keep amp-ing it up whereas Yellow Sea takes a while to get going, but once it does, this one was just intense. Real intense.

It's an amazing ride, really. I actually enjoyed this movie more than "I Saw the Devil," another movie I really anticipated seeing.

Na really knows how to make movies I tell you.


9/10