Assassination

This review may contain spoilers!

After watching Northern Limit Line I was pretty open to an another Korean blockbuster and I left a little disappointed. I would give Assassination a 6/10.

Assassination had a rather intriguing plot with some clever (though predictable) plot twists thrown in; the action sequences that the plot centred around were exceptionally executed. The sepcial effects that appeared within this film were quite spectacular and felt very realistic. I also quite enjoyed the movie's score; it contributed a lot to the power behind some of the scenes.

Ji-hyun Jun, who played An Ok-yun and Mitsuko, was incredible in this film as both personas; however it was the gritty soldier performance that really made this film stand out. Jung-woo Ha, who played Hawaii Pistol, was very enigmatic in this film; I like a well portrayed mercenary with a heart of gold role. Oh Dal-su, who played Old Man, was exceptionally comedic; I loved the cocky full blown gunslinger that he played. Choi Duk-mun, who played Hwang Deok-sam, was another really funny role; his death was one of the saddest and set the tone for the rest of the film.

However the best performance came from Lee Jung-jae, who played Yeom Seok-jin. I really liked that the film started showing how intense a role this guy could play, immediately establishing him as an action hero. However as the film progressed we really see a cunning side to this role and soon see a more duplicitous side when he betrays the freedom fighters. As an antagonist he's quite despicable which works perfectly for the film.

The film really dragged on for far too long and could have done with axing a few scenes here and there. Furthermore I thought the cinematography and editing was kind of bland, there was nothing that made the film look unique which was quite disappointing.

Cho Jin-woong, who played Big Gun, wasn't very well written; you didn't really know if you were supposed to like him or not or if he was a funny or serious role at times.