COMMITMENT
Jeri Jacquin, Movie Maven
Coming to DVD Blu-ray from Hong-soo Park and Well Go USA Entertainment comes the story of a boy who knows how to make a COMMITMENT.
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This film tells the story of Ri Myung-hoon (Seung Hyun Choi), a young man who has grown up in the shadow of a father considered to be a traitor. Given an opportunity to redeem himself, North Korea recruits him to become a spy in South Korea. He does so in order to save his younger sister.
Trained and sent to South Korea he is soon adopted by a couple who have their own illegal activities going on. Changing his name to Kang Dae-ho, he begins going to school in order to assimilate. There he meets Ri Hye-in (Yoo-Jeong Kim), another loner who keeps to herself.
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Continuing to do what is asked of him by officials, South Korean Intelligence is bearing down on Dae-ho. Now he must do one last job so he can return home to his sister, but there are loose ends that need to be taken care of, especially when an assassin he trusted kidnaps Hye-in.
He is now a man on his own mission!
FINAL WORD: Choi as Ri Myung-hoon/Kang Dae-ho proves to be a force in this film. Choi is also is a Korean pop star in his own right as T.O.P. of the K-pop boy band Big Bang. In this film a mixture of smoldering good looks, quiet stillness and a graceful presence brings the character of Dae-ho front and center. Had I not read he was a “pop” star I would never have thought it. I think his future is going to be in film and look forward to seeing it happen.
Han as Hye-in matches Choi at the ability to be invisible in a crowded room and at the same time be front and center. That’s an amazing trick to pull and she does it beautifully. Gracefully silent as a schoolgirl, she slowly grows on the screen finding what is good for her life beyond bullying and into a studio of dance. Han is really lovely to watch bring her side of this story into view.
These two actors work well with a love story that is filled with yearning. To many times a storyline is ruined, at least for me, by taking an innocent love story and screwing it up with tons of unrealistic sex scenes. Instead, it adds charm to the film that they keep their hearts at arms length.
Adding the intrigue of North and South Korea is really an interesting way to bring the politics of the countries to the forefront.
Other cast include: Ho-bin Jeon as Big Dipper, Sung Ha Jo as Moon Sang-chul and Je-mun Yun as Cha Jung-min.
TUBS OF POPCORN: I give COMMITMENT three and a half tubs of popcorn out of five. This is a combination of so many genres with a political thriller, espionage, intrigue, family loyalty and an innocence love story.
The action is absolutely bang to bullets, with car chases, a very cool motorcycle and a cast that brings it all together. The fight scenes are fast and mixed in are moments of tenderness that one might not expect in a storyline like COMMITMENT. This definitely is a film worth seeing repeatedly just to grasp both sides of the political maneuvering.
Well Go USA Entertainment is a theatre and entertainment company that brings only the best in Asian Cinema to North America. These titles are brought to theatres, DVD, Blu-ray, and digital formats. These films are also brought to television on cable and satellite programming. Releasing over 2,000 titles worldwide since 1994, Well Go USA continues to expand their releases with five to ten titles monthly. For more on their library go to www.wellgousa.com.
In the end – he will stop at nothing to save them both!
