Swiri (1999)

Note des utilisateurs:

6.6/10   

Réalisateur:

Je-gyu Kang

Scénariste:

Je-gyu Kang (writer)

Release Date:

13 février 1999 (South Korea)

Genre:

Action | Crime | Drame | Mystery | Romance | Thriller

Plot:

North Korea's 8th Special Forces hijacks a shipment of CTX, a potent new liquid explosive, and threatens...

Plot Keywords:

Korea | Terrorist | Special Agent | Agent | North Korea

Awards:

3 wins & 2 nominations

Avis des utilisateurs:

Umm...well...okay...

Ensemble

Suk-kyu Han	...	Jong Won Yu
Min-sik Choi	...	Mu-young Park
Yunjin Kim	...	Myung-hyun Lee / Bang-hee Lee (as Yoon-jin Kim)
Kang-ho Song	...	Jang-gil Lee
Johnny Kim	...	Dae-Ho Jung (as Derek Kim)
reste de la distribution par ordre alphabétique:
Jeong-min Hwang
Hyeong-seong Jang
Su-ro Kim
Seung-Shin Lee
Yong-woo Park	...	Sik

Autre(s) titre(s):

Shiri (Hong Kong: English title)
Nom de code: Shiri (France) (subtitle) [fr]
Shiri (France) [fr]

MPAA:

Rated R for strong violence and some language.

Durée:

125 min

Pays:

South Korea

Langue:

Coréen

Couleur:

Couleur

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Son:

Dolby Digital

Classification:

Brazil:14 | South Korea:15 | South Korea:12 (DVD rating) | Spain:18 | Philippines:R-13 (MTRCB) (cut) | Argentina:16 | Australia:R | Finland:K-15 | France:-12 | Germany:16 | Hong Kong:IIB | Norway:15 | Singapore:PG | UK:18 | USA:R

Emplacements De Pelliculage:

"The Hill of Shiri", Joongmoon-Dong, Seogwipo, Cheju Island, South Korea

Company:

Kang Je-Kyu Film Co. Ltd.

Anecdotes:

German film fans were astonished when this film passed the ratings board FSK (known for its extensive dislike of excessive violence) uncut with a "Not under 16" rating. It was expected that the film would not get a rating at all and had to go for a JK approval from SPIO (Head organization of German film business).

Goofs:

Continuity: The CTX convoy is shown driving to the right, including throughout the tunnel just before the ambush, but then it suddenly switches to the left side of the stripe when stopping at the checkpoint.

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in Eodiseonga nugungae museunili saengkimyeon teulrimeobshi natananda Hong Ban-jang (2004)

Soundtrack:

Mack the Knife

Umm...well...okay...

Umm...can someone explain what this one's doing in the ART theaters? I mean, the "Samuel Goldwyn" company? The guys taking like Zhang Yimou and Merchant-Ivory pictures? I mean, this is clearly a bid-budget Hollywood movie using Korean actors and a Korean plot. For God's sake, you've got product shots for Coke, Amway, and Bennigan's throughout the movie!

I was recommended to see this film by a friend of mine who's really got into the Asian action cinema. To be honest, I enjoyed this film's action scenes, and while it reminded me a bit of Michael Bay, what came to mind more often was the conflict between "the cop" group and "the crook" gang in Michael Mann's "Heat." The ambush in the theater sequence (which was surprisingly more tense than the ending) came right out of the scene in "Heat" when Deniro's guys come out of the bank and take on the cops in the L.A. streets, dodging behind the cars, running through the civilians.

I think the film would have seemed a little more compelling or interesting, if the point of view of Park had been played out a little more. In the last ten minutes, you get the sense of why Park and his men may be fighting as fanatically as they do, sensing the inequalities between North and South Korea. You might even get a sense of why Hee trains as strictly as she does. But we never see anything of North Korea here besides Special Forces training grounds! How can a movie about that conflict totally ignore the one landscape?

So, instead of that, you get a rather efficiently executed spy chase shoot-em-up through the streets of Seoul that ends unfortunately on a light note. The ending of La Femme Nikita is the perfect coda to this type of spy film, two guys sitting at a table lamenting the disappearance of their loved one, but hardly saying a word, then BOOM-the rock music is back on with the credits. Please don't hand me melodrama when you've provided the highest body count since Rambo. Keep up the adrenaline.

While the love story is rather trite, I totally got into the ferocity of the lead characters in the chase. And the moment when Ryu realized how the Special Forces are getting their info was great. Okay...so we'll look for better films from this director, but all I have to say is what I've said before- why this division between art films and multiplexes? This is SUCH a Friday night popcorn-and-coke "blockbuster" film. We've got to get over the foreign-language barrier, especially in the wake of 9/11, when appreciation of such cultures is necessary for our own security.