In the director of The Good the Bad the Weird, I Saw the Devil, and A Bittersweet Life we trust.
I’m not the biggest fan of The Last Stand, and when you mention the name Kim Jee-woon that American Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle is the last of his films that comes to mind. Instead my mind races to I Saw the Devil, The Good the Bad the Weird, A Bittersweet Life, A Tale of Two Sisters, and The Quiet Family. The common thread among them? They’re Korean films, and now Kim is back on home turf for his latest feature, The Age of Shadows.
Kim’s film is a dramatic thriller set in the first half of the 20th century during during Japan’s occupation of Korea. It follows a group of resistance fighters working to secure explosives for their fight against the invading force, but enemy forces, old acquaintances, and double crosses threaten their efforts.
Check out the first trailer below.
Kim’s name is enough to get me into a seat, and the cast and sharp cinematography are just icing on the cake. I’ll watch Song Kang-ho in anything, and you should too, and this looks to a meatier role than some the actor has conquered recently. The recent film Assassination mined similar period territory to great effect, and by the look of the trailer Kim appears to have captured similar historical thrills, albeit with a potentially more dramatic edge surrounding its main characters’ relationship.
The official synopsis is here:
Lee Jung-chool (SONG Kang-ho), a Korean police captain in the Japanese police force, is given a special mission to infiltrate the armed resistance fighting for the independence of Korea led by an old acquaintance of his, Kim Woo-jin (GONG Yoo). After an intel leak and the death of a resistance leader, pressure on Captain Lee to take down the resistance grows, but as he works deeper into their web, it becomes more unclear who is actually playing who and where true allegiances lie.
Korean distributor CJ Entertainment is opening The Age of Shadows in the U.S. on September 23rd, just a couple weeks after its domestic release in South Korea. Look for our review during Fantastic Fest.
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