Hong Won-chan, known to be the screenwriter of The Chaser (released in 2008 and directed by Na Hong-Jin), this is his second feature film (published in South Korea in 2020), a solid and raced actioner taking place in Thailand.
Too old for this hit
The starting point of the film is quite classic: a killer, In-nam (interpreted by Hwang Jeong-min, seen in The Strangers), retired after a last contract, decided to go sunbathe his fingers in fan in South America. But his daughter, whom he never knew, is abducted in Thailand.
Arriving there, he must fight against human traffickers, but especially against a man who wants to kill him. This is the brother of his last contract, Ray (Lee Jeong-jae seen in Squid Game and New World), a murderer as evil as he did in-nam.
The devil hides in detail
If intricacies are very classic, the film is interesting because of its always arduousness and the quality of its action scenes. Taking the side of the camera carried, the action remains always legible and falsely erratic camera movements created a real dynamic. This filming is also balanced by a not uninteresting use of slow motion and a rather skilful sense of frame. However, this would have deserved less cut editing.
The choreography of the fighting is also one of the great forces of the film, for clashes always on the alive (« Korea »), very violent and covered with memorable plans. Outside the action scenes, the staging caricatures Thailand a little, but transforms urban space into a Western universe where both opponents play « cat and mouse ».
« It's Ray, the butcher. »
Costume against zebra shirt
The other strength of the film lies in the confrontation between the two men. Beyond their physical struggle, these two archetypes emerge an epic and tragic power. If they are immediately shown for their resemblance, their job (killers), they turn out to be quite different...
In-nam is a methodical killer who seeks a form of redemption by coming to Thailand; Ray is him, a colorful killer (as his look points out) who takes pleasure in killing, just coming to get revenge. These two characters also work thanks to the quality of their performers: Hwanf Jeong-min offers us all the possibilities of his game, sometimes cold and hard, often moving, because on the crest of emotion; Lee Jeong-jae, he just stays in a role where other would have had the ease of overplaying the sociopath. Beyond the game, the charism of the two men finished to take the whole thing away.
« Why such violence? »
To conclude, if he does not revolutionize the genre, this film is made with enough know-how and intelligence to have a very good time of harsh, violent, stylized and brutal action. Nor does he abandon the writing of his characters (even secondary ones) and make this duel thrilling in Thailand.
Available in Blu-ray since 04 April 2022 at Spectrum Films.
Deliver Us From Evil does deliver the action that his trailer promised us, with a casting involved and your pretty violent. But they are so half-tinted that we can only be disappointed with the final result. A film too medium for attention.
I have to get the Blu-ray from one day to the next... I'll see!