Red-Barracuda Set in 1920's Japanese occupied Korea, a Korean police captain who works for the oppressors is set the task of infiltrating a resistance group.The Age of Shadows is a period spy film which educated me on some matters I hitherto did not know anything about regarding Korean history. It is a very solid bit of film-making with strong production values evident throughout. The look of the film faultlessly captures the era and the colour scheme has a slightly sepia tinged look which suggested the past pretty effectively. It is a film which is pretty plot-driven but it also focuses on the conflict between duty, loyalty and patriotism. It is essentially a thriller though and it is certainly successfully suspenseful quite often, with an extended sequence on-board a train particularly well done in this regard. It is also very brutal at times too, especially in the scenes in the Japanese torture chamber which had me actively cringing at the atrocities played out on screen. It is maybe a little too standard in approach to provide much in the way of surprises but it still nevertheless delivers its material very well and it is additionally a good thing to see a thriller with a topic which hasn't been covered too often. Definitely worth watching.

Prashast Singh Movie: The Age of Shadows (15)Rating: 4.5/5Director Kim Jee-woon is a my favourite South Korean film director. He knows the perfect way to create entertaining as well as social relevant films. Gong Yoo and Song Kang-ho aren't merely actors: they are the masters of the performances they deliver and when these three men come together with one film THE AGE OF SHADOWS: then there's seriously nothing except "excellent" that can describe the overall film, also because apart from the acting & direction, other departments too are handled extremely well. The film is a must watch for anyone, especially South Korean audiences. They loved it and thus it became a Box Office success. But it's a film much more than just an entertainer. Unpredictable and well-detailed, the film's screenplay is quite excellent, and the execution is top notch. Don't ask about Kim's direction: it's excellent as usual. Same for Gong Yoo and Song Kang-ho: you'll be able to relate to them and feel what they go through, thanks to the natural performances of these two men. The reason what keeps you glued to the screens is the presence of mind- boggling thrills, breathtaking action sequences, splendid cinematography and a top notch execution along with delightfully awesome visuals supported by powerful emotions. Seeing Lee Byung-hun in this film was an absolute pleasure. He plays his part perfectly. The humour in the film is quite decent and is placed accordingly. The editing, however needed to be tighter as it could've been trimmed to some extent. The film being a little slow might not engage everyone at once. But when it does, it does it seriously and successfully.Having said that, I'll have no doubt I calling the film "Kim's masterpiece", since he lives up to the expectations one can have from him after he has delivered films which've changed the way world looked at South Korean Cinema. This film only adds up to the praise for the South Korean Cinema, and presents a lot of things we'll like to take back home with us.

cdcrb when the warner bros. logo came up all I could think about was bette davis and those four sound stages she built for the studio. why warner b ros. is involved with this is beyond me, but it is the perfect studio to produce a film like this. it' the 1920's and the Korean resistance is fighting to get the Japanese out. there are the usual good guys, very gad guys , femme fatales and conflicted ideals. kim jee woon is the director and apparently he is known for his action sequences. he does not disappoint here. the opening is almost a ballet on roof tops (no, don't flee the theatre) and there is a long running train scene that's edge of your seat fun. OK, so it's very standard 40's noir, but it's in color and the cinematography is spectacular. although it's a Korean film, it sure has a Hollywood feel to it. it's just classy. and without offense, meant, it's really not a very Korean movie. I really enjoyed it.

MisterWhiplash I have to wonder if director Kim Jee-Woon titled this film in some part after the Melville WW2 film Army of Shadows. This isn't to get all movie trivia on you all, rather it's to make a small point about how Jee-Woon is doing two things in The Age of Shadows and doing them well: making a sort of homage to films about resistance movements and espionage during wartime (in a way this makes this a war film, but the front-lines are often with a few people behind closed doors, or trying to find people on a train who are incognito, or sides being reversed, with torture on the table for the side with power to those captured), and at the same time it's Jee-Woon making a film about his own country's history, when Korea was occupied by Japan, which adds a personal dimension to it.While I'm sure if I was Korean I would have more of a connection to it - I actually didn't know as much about this history as I thought - knowing about other resistance and underground movements against occupying powers (and another film that comes to mind outside of Melville's film, which is much darker than this, is Inglourious Basterds) makes the drama palpable. Oh, and the actual conflicts and character dynamics pop every possible moments. It's a story about loyalty and honor, but also how difficult that really is: the point of view is mostly from Song Kang-Ho (remember him from Snowpiercer and The Host and other films by Bong Joon-Ho?), a Korean born officer for the Japanese police who was one years before part of the resistance against Japan, but has now gone to the side of conformity. But people underground, including Kim Woo-Jin who is wanted by the top Japanese police brass, see some potential in Hang-Ho's character, the conflict in him deep down, and look to "open his heart" to turn for them. Partially.This is a complex film, and I'm sure on a first screening a few plot points here and there or little scenes made it so that I'm also sure a second screening might clear up a few things (it's a long film too at 140 minutes, not unlike Army of Shadows, so it's kind of dense viewing - not a bad thing, just what it is). In this complexity the filmmaker, who also is the writer, finds a lot of strong thematic connections, how we as the audience can fill in the gaps that might be questioning on how or why characters decide to do things, the journey for Lee Jung-Chool as alright cop to gray-area level traitor, and it doesn't shy away from gruesome details and moments. It doesn't dwell on things like the torture scenes, when resistance fighters who are captured and given burning skewers or ripped-off finger-nails, but it's important to show enough of that so it impacts certain characters. At the same time the violence is brutal but cut quick (not too quick, of course), which also brings back to mind Basterds.What I mean to say going back to 'complex' is that you have to pay attention to it (you look at your phone while watching this for a second and you'll miss something, put it away, it's not that kind of movie - aside from that you'll miss the often exquisite filmmaking and those moments where the screws tighten like that entire sequence on the train that makes up a 20 minute chunk midway through). It treats its audience like adults who can take some very hard decisions from characters, and also how subtle cues can alert people to things, and yet at the same time there's even some humor here and there. When the main resistance guy gets introduced to Lee Jung-Chool, the way to make things a little less, uh, 'tense' is to go through an entire barrel of liquor. How this one minute of film is cut together, showing drink after drink tumbled down until the barrel is empty, is one of the funniest things this year - but, again, subtle-funny. It's more about character than anything else.This is at times a rough film, its twists and turns confronting your expectations and making you question what's going to come next, and other times bleak and depressing. But it all leads up to a place that is phenomenal in terms of its dramatic arc and how the director builds up the kind of palpable suspense that shows he's watched his share of The Godfather a thousand times (but he makes it his own, it's not aped to annoyance). He's so assured that he goes past being one of the most skillful directors in Korea right now; The Age of Shadows confirms after massively entertaining and incredibly dark efforts like The Good, the Bad, the Weird and I Saw the Devil as basically someone in the entire WORLD that should be cherished. This is a remarkable film, and one of the better, more harrowing efforts of 2016.