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Swiri (1999) Plus avec IMDbPro »

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85 commentaires au total

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31 utilisateurs sur 39 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
Misunderstood, 13 mai 2002

Auteur : hwarangdo de Korea

This is not a romance, nor an action film. Despite the tragic love scenes and the overrated action scenes -- At the heart of this movie is a desperate cry for peace.

I don't know if the subtitles were flawed or the international audience just don't see the cultural implications, but the movie's final scene brought tears to my eyes. When I read the other comments, all I see is "Hollywood wannabe" and "overrated action scenes" pasted everywhere. Sure the movie dosen't have an incredible impact in its action scenes but the underlying themes and the awesome acting and chemistry between the main actors make this film a must-see.

If you enjoyed this movie, Also see: Joint Security Area, Friend, 2009 Lost Memories

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11 utilisateurs sur 15 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
Some plot holes but generally a really good thriller, 18 mai 2003
Auteur : bob the moo de Birmingham, UK

Against the background of political tensions between north and south Korea, an elite group of soldiers (the 8th Special Forces) infiltrate the South with the aim of carrying out terrorist attacks. Most worrying of all is the reappearance of deadly assassin Hee in South Korea. Special agents Ryu and Lee are assigned to bring down Hee, however when the group get hold of a hi-tech new explosive they hold Seoul to ransom for $10million. Meanwhile Ryu and Lee realise that there is a mole inside their agency that keeps Hee one step ahead of them.

Other reviewers have said that this film is a good addition to the `heroic bloodshed' genre of Hong Kong cinema, with it's gory bloodshed and bullet ballets. However I personally feel that this is to do the film a disservice – the film doesn't just lift that style but rather delivers a solid thriller story line with plenty of well directed action. The plot is a detective story with the added boost of the terrorist attacks. It has a couple of nice twists along the way that work pretty well. The downside is that the plot occasionally makes minor jumps that are hard to follow, for example an action scene is immediately followed by a scene where the same characters are in a different situation, this happens twice and threw me a little. But these are minor problems. The political arguments are not too complex – one reviewed said to go and read up on Korean history before seeing Shiri, this is far from necessary. It is quite simple but doesn't get in the way of the bigger thriller story line.

The action is not of the slow-mo OTT type seen in The Killer or Hard Boiled but is more like the extended gun battles seen in Heat. Yes, they are a bit OTT but they aren't as heavily stylised as in many HK movies. Instead the tension comes from the excellent direction. Using a handheld camera really makes the gun battles feel intense and very close to where you're sitting. The action does have some HK clichés but these are still well delivered.

The cast are all well Han Suk-Kyu (Ryu) does well with the action as well as the romance subplot with Kim Yoon-jin. The rest of the cast are good – even the comedy odd-ball is good value, compared to the occasional Hollywood comedy character that can be grating.

I haven't seen too many Korean films but this was a particularly good thriller with intense action. Overall I enjoyed this film and fully expect America to pick up on the fact that it has action AND a workable story and commission a remake pretty soon. Wouldn't you rather see the original first?

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13 utilisateurs sur 21 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
Asian cinema at its peak, 17 avril 2000

Auteur : abettertomorrow de Nouvelle-Zélande

*** Ce commentaire peut contenir des spoilers ***

Mixing Hong Kong-style action and Hollywood-style narrative with an old-fashioned yet refreshing story and a cast headed by the Korean equivalents to Al Pacino and Robert De Niro, it is not much of a surprise this ingeniously original action-drama-romance outgrossed Titanic in Korean domestic box office ticket sales.

Yu Jong Won, A super-slick government field agent (played by superstar Han Seok Kyu) is on the trail of a mysterious and powerful North Korean military terrorist group headed by a frighteningly dedicated soldier (Choi Min Sik) and a mysterious woman assassin which has planted a bomb in a stadium in Seoul set to hold the first North/South Korea soccer match only days away. An extraordinary job for Jong Won turns extremely personal when he finds out his long-time girlfriend Myung-Hyun (Kim Yoon Jin) is the mysterious assassin who will kill both country's leaders if Plan A backfires...

Any other film would have shown the terrorists as one-dimensional stereotypes but this film dives deep into their minds, showing they were typically driven by their government and poverty to do their deeds. At core, Swiri is more of a romantic drama than a pure action film, but people unaware of the North-South Korean situation may not fully see the drama. The romantic department however is amazing to see no matter what, not only because of the material it is brought into but the effectiveness of it. If the ending does not bring a tear to your eye, it is pretty clear nothing else will.

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7 utilisateurs sur 11 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
Disappointed in this film, 21 novembre 2005

Auteur : evilasahobby

*** Ce commentaire peut contenir des spoilers ***

I'd heard a lot about "Shiri" (aka "Swiri") and how this Korean action film compared favourably (or perhaps even exceeded) recent US action films. So it was with high hopes I sat down to watch this movie.

Perhaps it was a result of the hype, but I came away feeling very disappointed in this film. There are some very strong scenes in this film, don't get me wrong - the training sequence at the start, the suddenness of the assassinations, for example - which help add something different to this movie, and the technical aspects of "Shiri" are definitely better than average, but in many ways this film falls short.

The big issue for me was the disconnect between the 'realistic' political aspect that provided the motivation for the movie and the over-the-top gun play in the action sequences. At the very start, the training sequence makes the movie look like it will have a more realistic portrayal of violence, but this dissipates in a hail of bullets during the shoot-outs. Apparently the South Korean Special Forces suck, because they put thousands of rounds from MP5s in the direction of their heavily outnumbered North Korean adversaries and continually miss, while the North Koreans just need hand guns (Berettas, possibly) and one shot to gun down large numbers of armoured opponents.

I don't mind cartoon-ish violence in live action films, but it has to be kept consistent. The ability of the North Koreans to avoid large numbers of South Korean bullets exceeded my suspension of disbelief and undermined my acceptance of the political motivation. I can handle the plot holes and the bad science, but just can't reconcile the supposed realistic political themes with the absurd action sequences.

As for the love story aspect - well, it was something a bit different for this genre of movie (especially the phone message at the very end of the film - that would have been heartbreaking for the characters involved), but not enough to make this film any more than a curiosity for those who want to see what Korean action films are capable of.

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10 utilisateurs sur 17 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
Okay, but nothing close to "genius", 2 décembre 2001
Auteur : yojimbo999 de Earth

This is certainly an okay action movie. But after reading all the reviews using every hyperbole in the dictionary to call this movie "great" and "genius," I just have to put in my 2 cents.

"Shiri" is a good action movie, but some of the action scenes are just too long and seems to go on and on forever without ending. The movie itself is covered end to end in cliches. There's nothing here that hasn't been done before, and been done better. The love story was probably the only decent thing in the entire movie. After all, how many times do you have to see guys in commando uniforms storming buildings or pursuing criminals? I counted at least 6 separate SWAT-like incidents in this movie.

In interviews, the director claimed "Shiri" was supposed to overthrow Hollywood's dominance in the South Korean market. If by "overthrowing" he means to copy and be just like them, then he's achieved his purpose.

So, in summation: good movie, but definitely not as ground-breaking as everyone seems to think. How can you possibly call this movie "better" than a standard Hollywood summer event film when it's an exact duplicate of those same summer event films? It doesn't make sense, and I question if those who gives this movie such a glowing review isn't doing it because of some bias towards all things Hollywood. For those of you who fits in this category, just remember that "Citizen Kane" and "the Godfather" came out of Hollywood, too, so get off your high horse.

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3 utilisateurs sur 4 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
Surprisingly good movie. Worth watching., 10 juin 2002
Auteur : muckiduck de California, USA

I found this movie at Blockbusters in the DVD section. Although I am of Korean background, I have not heard of this movie prior to finding it at Blockbusters. I rented it out of curiosity... the short description on the jacket seemed interesting enough. I only found out after watching the movie that it was such a big hit in Korea a few years ago. Watching the movie, it reminded me of "The Rock", "La Femme Nikita/Point of No Return", and "Heat".. All these were previously mentioned in other comments, and I agree that some of the scenes in Swiri (or Shiri) weren't very original in that regard. Still, the quality of the movie was surprisingly excellent. I also agree a lot of the action sequences in this movie weren't perfect, but then again, so are some of Hollywood's action movies. Some of the special effects were below par as well (the scene where a building blows up wasn't too convincing). Still, I've seen other Korean movies and I must say that Korean films have come a long way.. cinematography, plot, characterization were all done really well. I watched it twice.. once in Korean audio without subtitles, and again with English subtitles. The subtitles, although done very well, does leave out some of the subtleties. I'd say it is a difficult thing, translating dialog without losing something somewhere. Still the acting does fill in the blanks quite well I thought. I thought the acting was excellent.. Knowing a bit about the North/South Korean history would help understand the movie. Also knowing a bit about South Korean perception of the North Korea would also help understand the movie better as well. I thought that the love story in the movie, although it is a type that is very very often used (the tragic type) especially in Korean films, worked well. I thought it was far more convincing than the love between Anakin and Amidala in SW2 AOTC.

Overall, Swiri/Shiri isn't perfect. It isn't without holes. It doesn't compare to Heat (an excellent film). But unlike some of other "Hollywood" movies, that Blockbusters had many more copies of (Black Knight, Joy Ride, Thirteen Ghosts), I was glad to have paid $4.09 to rent it for 5 days. That reminds me. I'd better return my copy since they only had copy. If you can find a copy at your local Blockbusters or a DVD/Video rental place, rent it.

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7 utilisateurs sur 12 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
Over-rated, 28 août 2000
Auteur : Possum-13 (hausfrau747@hotmail.com) de Grubbister

*** Ce commentaire peut contenir des spoilers ***

This contains two or three minor spoilers. 'Shiri' was liked by so many movie enthusiasts simply on the grounds that it is not a Hollywood flick. If this were, say, the newest Steven Segal effort, and I can easily imagine him doing it, it would have been dismissed without any futher ado. So the action scenes are a tad more brutal than what we might be used to from your usual kill-everyone-in-sight H'wood outpourings of idiocy and the cross-cultural experience itself might be enough to make some people sit up and watch more closely, but all in all, this movie fails as a whole on account of its incoherent and weak storytelling. Plus, if the female lead is a former alcoholic slipping back into her old ways, she might at least consider learning how to pretend she is taking a swig out of the old bottle of something-or-other without everyone in the theater noticing she is faking it. The only amusing moment in this tiresome ordeal of a picture is the coroner saying:"You should catch these bad guys, so we can all go and get drunk." Now that's motivation for you!

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1 utilisateurs sur 1 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
Slick, action-packed Korean political thriller, 9 février 2008

Auteur : Dave from Ottawa de Canada

Security agent Ryu stumbles upon a plot by North Korean fanatics (led by terrorist Park and assassin Hee) to disrupt peace and re-unification efforts by North and South politicians using high tech explosives and the hunt is on to stop them. Much gun play follows, as well as much talk about the politics and sociology of possible Korean re-unification. Given North Korea's history of selling weaponry to anyone with hard currency and South Korea's position as an important diplomatic and military ally of the U.S., such discussions are actually of worldwide interest. Since emerging in the mid-90s as a distinct cinematic power, South Korea has become filmdom's leading edge for cult actioners and this movie shows why. It is fast paced, uberviolent, with a polished look, tightly crafted plot line and strong performances by its ensemble cast.

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4 utilisateurs sur 7 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
Excellent action and violent Korean film, 20 juillet 2004

Auteur : ma-cortes de Santander Spain

It's a cool movie. Since the start until the end the action is unstoppable.

The flick talks upon counter-terrorism outfit that has to fight against a murderous terrorist group by means of explosive liquid with the aim to blow up a soccer stadium and getting the unification Korea.

The movie has a John Woo style ,there are amount shoot-outs, frenetic action and running man while they are shooting.

The film blends action packed, rip roaring,love ,betray, drama,violence and is quite entertaining.

The movie will like to action lovers and Hong Kong films, it's very spectacular ,it's a film for adrenaline lovers.

Rating :7/10 good

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4 utilisateurs sur 7 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
politically entertaining action plot with a romantic twist, 17 avril 2003

Auteur : arashi_shizuke

a refreshing breeze from south korean film industry. even though it may look like a typical hollywood style shoot-out, there is something that elevates the movie from just being a regular action flick. the romantic tension balances the action scenes greatly. the acting may not be top notch but the roster is full of good actors. romantic flavor between the leading couple balances the action scenes nicely and while in some parts the movie seems to slow down, at the end of the day it delivers. i suggest you look into the history between the two koreas before watching this film. that may enlighten you to realize the fine tension that is present and completely entertaining experience becomes possible.

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