The Yellow Sea (film)
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

''The Yellow Sea'' () is a 2010 South Korean
action thriller film Action film is a film genre in which the protagonist is thrust into a series of events that typically involve violence and physical feats. The genre tends to feature a mostly resourceful hero struggling against incredible odds, which include life ...
directed by
Na Hong-jin Na Hong-jin (, born 1974) is a South Korean film director, producer and screenwriter. Na has won a multitude of awards with his films and most known for violent thriller and horror characteristics in his films. Na first became recognised after ...
and starring
Ha Jung-woo Kim Sung-hoon (born March 11, 1978), better known as Ha Jung-woo (), is a South Korean actor, film director, screenwriter and film producer. One of the highest grossing actors in South Korea, Ha's starring films have accumulated more than 100 mil ...
and
Kim Yoon-seok Kim Yoon-seok (born January 21, 1967) is a South Korean actor, film director and screenwriter. Kim began his career in theater and it subsequently led him to be cast in minor roles in films and television dramas. His breakout role came as the vi ...
in the lead roles. This film marks the reunion of the director and the lead actors who also first collaborated for the 2008 film ''
The Chaser The Chaser are an Australian satirical comedy group, best known for their television programmes and satirical news masthead. The group take their name from their satirical newspaper, a publication known to challenge conventions of taste. Th ...
'', in which Ha Jung-woo played the antagonist and Kim Yoon-seok played the protagonist. In ''The Yellow Sea'', Ha Jung-woo plays the protagonist while Kim Yoon-seok plays the antagonist. The film revolves around a cab driver who agrees to carry out a hit on a professor in exchange for getting his debts paid. He soon becomes a fugitive after the hit goes wrong, and is chased by both the police and the gangster who assigned him the task. ''The Yellow Sea'' was released in South Korea on 22 December 2010.


Plot

In northeastern Chinese city of
Yanji Yanji (; Chosŏn'gŭl: 연길, ''Yeon-gil;'' Hangul: 옌지, ''Yenji;'' alternately romanized as Yenki) is a county-level city in the east of China's Jilin Province, and is the seat of the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture. Its population i ...
in Yanbian Prefecture, Gu-nam (
Ha Jung-woo Kim Sung-hoon (born March 11, 1978), better known as Ha Jung-woo (), is a South Korean actor, film director, screenwriter and film producer. One of the highest grossing actors in South Korea, Ha's starring films have accumulated more than 100 mil ...
), an ethnic Korean, or Joseonjok, toils away as a taxi driver. When not working, he is often found at gambling halls. Gu-nam is now in serious debt. His wife left to work in South Korea and promised to send money back. He has yet to hear from her and is tormented by nightmares of her having an extra-marital affair. To make matters worse, Gu-nam is fired from his job and debt collectors take most of his severance pay. Local gangster, Myun Jung-hak (
Kim Yoon-seok Kim Yoon-seok (born January 21, 1967) is a South Korean actor, film director and screenwriter. Kim began his career in theater and it subsequently led him to be cast in minor roles in films and television dramas. His breakout role came as the vi ...
), offers him a deal: if Gu-nam goes to South Korea to kill a professor named Kim Seung-hyun, he will get (). Gu-nam accepts and leaves for South Korea by train and a rickety fishing boat, with for expenses. When Gu-nam arrives in South Korea, he carefully scopes out his target for days, while also searching for his wife. The night before his boat is due to return to China, Gu-nam witnesses Kim Seung-hyun being ambushed and killed by his driver and two accomplices inside his apartment building's stairwell. After fending off the driver, Gu-nam cuts off Seung-hyun's thumb, as per Mr. Myun's contract, but is spotted by Seung-hyun's wife and is forced to flee the police. Upon arriving at the supposed location for the boat back to China, there is no one to pick Gu-nam up, and he realizes he's been set up. It is revealed that a businessman named Kim Tae-won had hired the driver to kill Seung-hyun. Tae-won turns his gang's attention to finding Gu-nam. After discovering that Gu-nam was hired by Myun, Tae-won sends his men to China to have Myun killed as well, but Myun kills them and instead returns to Korea to force a meeting with Tae-won. They strike a deal, with Tae-won promising to pay out Myun for finding and killing Gu-nam. On the run from the police, Gu-nam abducts and interrogates one of Myun's smugglers and arranges a return to China via cargo ship. At the same time, he sees reports on TV that a woman matching the description of his wife had been killed by a man he had investigated as being connected to his wife earlier. Gu-nam hires an outside investigator to check the body and confirm if the woman killed was his wife, and when the investigator cannot tell if it is her, he lies to Gu-nam and arranges to have the woman cremated and the ashes delivered to Gu-nam. After arriving at the cargo ship, Gu-nam realizes he has been set up yet again and is cornered by Myun's men and almost killed, but is able to escape. Some of Myun's men are arrested and point the police towards Tae-won, who sends men to the apartment complex Myun and his crew is staying at to have him killed. The rest of Myun's crew are killed, but Myun defeats Tae-won's crew, burns down the complex, and leaves to find Tae-won. Gu-nam returns to Seung-hyun's apartment, promising to Seung-hyun's wife to kill the man responsible for having her husband murdered. Myun ambushes Tae-won at his gang's headquarters, and after a lengthy conflict, the two are mortally wounded. During Gu-nam's search, he is ambushed and abducted by two goons, but kills them and retrieves a business card off of one of the goons for a banker who had been in contact with Myun. Gu-nam arrives at the station and stands over the dying Tae-won, who mumbles that Seung-hyun had an affair with his wife. Myun passes out at the wheel of his van and crashes at the station entrance, and dies from his wounds. At a restaurant, a wounded Gu-nam meets with the man who helped identify his wife and is given her ashes. After following the business card to a bank, he leaves after seeing Seung-hyun's wife talking to the banker who had hired Myun, deducing that she had hired him to kill her own husband. Both Tae-won and Seung-hyun's wife had put the hit on Seung-hyun; Tae-won for having an affair with his wife, Seung-hyun's wife for cheating. Gu-nam heads to a pier and takes a fisherman hostage and orders him to go to Yanbian. While on the boat, he has a vision of his wife leaving on a train; he succumbs to his wounds en route back to China. The fisherman then dumps Gu-nam's body and the ashes in the water. In an ambiguous mid-credit scene, Gu-nam's wife arrives home by train.


Cast

*
Ha Jung-woo Kim Sung-hoon (born March 11, 1978), better known as Ha Jung-woo (), is a South Korean actor, film director, screenwriter and film producer. One of the highest grossing actors in South Korea, Ha's starring films have accumulated more than 100 mil ...
as Gu-nam *
Kim Yoon-seok Kim Yoon-seok (born January 21, 1967) is a South Korean actor, film director and screenwriter. Kim began his career in theater and it subsequently led him to be cast in minor roles in films and television dramas. His breakout role came as the vi ...
as Myun Jung-hak *
Jo Sung-ha Jo Sung-ha (; born August 8, 1966) is a South Korean actor. He is best known for his supporting roles in '' The Yellow Sea'' (2010), '' Helpless'' (2012), and '' Korean Peninsula'' (2012) and '' The K2'' (2016). Filmography Film Television ...
as Tae-won * Lee Chul-min as Choi Sung-nam *
Kwak Do-won Kwak Do-won (born Kwak Byung-kyu on May 17, 1973) is a South Korean actor. Career Kwak is known for his roles in the films '' The Yellow Sea'' (2010), '' Nameless Gangster: Rules of the Time'' (2012), ''The Attorney ''The Attorney'' () is a 20 ...
as Prof. Kim Seung-hyun * Lim Ye-won as Prof. Kim's wife * Tak Sung-eun as Gu-nam's wife * Kim Ki-hwan as Prof. Kim's driver * Ki Se-hyung as Tae-won's subordinate *
Lee El Lee El (born Kim Ji-hyun on June 26, 1982) is a South Korean actress. She is best known for her supporting roles in the film ''Inside Men'' (2015), the television series ''It's Okay, That's Love'', '' Guardian: The Lonely and Great God'' (2016 ...
as Joo-young, Tae-won's mistress * Oh Yoon-hong as Tae-won's wife *
Jung Man-sik Jung Man-sik (; born December 11, 1974) is a South Korean actor. His name is also romanized as ''Jeong Man-sik'' or ''Joung Man-sik''. Filmography Film Television series * '' Jungle Fish 2'' (KBS2, 2010) * '' Athena: Goddess of War'' (SBS, ...
as Detective * Jung Min-sung as Detective * Kim Dong-hyun as Detective *
Park Byung-eun Park Byung-eun (born 14 July 1977) is a South Korean actor. Personal life Park majored in drama at Chung-Ang University. Park was set to debut with 90s South Korean boy group Taesaja in 1997, but gave up due to him feeling that he cannot sing ...
as bank employee *
Jang So-yeon Jang So-yeon (Korean:장소연; born Seo Eun-jung on 28 January 1980) is a South Korean actress. She is alumni of Sookmyung Women's University, Department of English and Chinese. She made her acting debut in 2001, since then, she has appeared i ...
as employee at Do-man Hotel * Yang Ki-won as detective * Sung Byoung-sook as Gu-nam's mother * Kong Jung-hwan as Jeon Pil-kyoo * Baek Won-gil as Korean-Chinese kidnapper 1 * Kang Hyun-joong as Busan port sailor * Yoo Ha-bok as Yanbian taxi boss *
Lee Hee-joon Lee Hee-joon (born June 29, 1979) is a South Korean actor. Personal life Lee Hee-joon and model Lee Hye-jung confirmed their relationship in August 2015. They registered their marriage prior to the ceremony and had their private wedding ceremon ...
as policeman * Lee Jun-hyeok as dog seller 2 *
Kim Jae-hwa Kim Jae-hwa (born September 1, 1980) is a South Korean actress. Career Kim made her acting debut in 2009 in the film '' Harmony'' and she started to gain recognition following her role as Deng Yaping, Chinese champion of table tennis comp ...
as Jung-hak's girlfriend (uncredited)


Release

The film was screened in the
Un Certain Regard (, meaning 'a certain glance') is a section of the Cannes Film Festival's official selection. It is run at the Debussy, parallel to the competition for the . This section was introduced in 1978 by Gilles Jacob. The section presents 20 films w ...
section at the
2011 Cannes Film Festival The 64th Cannes Film Festival was held from 11 to 22 May 2011. American actor Robert De Niro served as the president of the jury for the main competition and French filmmaker Michel Gondry headed the jury for the short film competition. South ...
, as well as the 2011
Filmfest München The Munich International Film Festival (german: Filmfest München) is the largest summer film festival in Germany and second only in size and importance to the Berlinale. It has been held annually since 1983 and takes place in late-June/earl ...
. The Australian and UK films rights were sold to Bounty Films. The UK release of the film was on October 21, 2011.


Reception

The film opened on December 22, 2010 in South Korea and was top of the box office, selling 1.05 million tickets in its first five days of release, according to the Korean Film Council. The film sold a total of 2,142,742 tickets nationwide. The film received positive critical reviews. The
review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...
website
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
reported that 88% of 25 critics have given the film a positive reviews. On review aggregator website
Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
, the film has a weighted average score of 70 out of 100 based on 19 critics, indicating "generally positive reviews". Mark Olsen of ''
The Los Angeles Times ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...
'' wrote "A breakneck mix of bone-crunching freneticism and bloody close-quarters knife-fighting with a strand of romantic melancholy". ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
s Manohla Dargis wrote "A rush of a movie from South Korea that slips and slides from horror to humor on rivers of blood and offers the haunting image of a man, primitive incarnate, beating other men with an enormous, gnawed-over meat bone." ''
The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Hollywood film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade paper, and in 2010 switched to a weekly larg ...
s Maggie Lee stated "The raging stamina, unrelenting violence, rapid-fire editing and truncated narrative all give one no pause for thought or even breath. By the time the central mystery is revealed in a nice twist, it gets swallowed in the messy, anti-climactic end." Peter Bradshaw of ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' added "This noirish South Korean gangster film is a deafening explosion of energy, gruesome violence and chaos that, despite its implausibilities, has brashness and style... Perhaps The Yellow Sea does not really hang together, and, yes, it could perhaps have lost 30 minutes. But its power and bite-strength are impressive." Philip Kemp of ''
GamesRadar+ ''GamesRadar+'' (formerly ''GamesRadar'') is an entertainment website for video game-related news, previews, and reviews. It is owned by Future plc. In late 2014, Future Publishing-owned sites '' Total Film'', '' SFX'', ''Edge'' and ''Computer ...
'' gave the film two stars out of five, stating "At nearly two and a half hours long, The Yellow Sea is overkill in every sense." Michael Atkinson of ''
The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, th ...
'' mentioned "If anything, Na's film is too much of a good thing, exceeding credibility too often (the punching-bag hero is far too lucky - good and bad - and absorbs a hilarious amount of punishment) in its pursuit of despairing violence. But that's the Korean way, and Na nails down the bottom feeder realism while slouching toward video-game hyperbole".


Awards and nominations


References


External links

* (UK) * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Yellow Sea, The 2010 films 2010 action drama films 2010 action thriller films 2010s chase films South Korean action drama films South Korean action thriller films Films about contract killing South Korean neo-noir films Films set in Jilin Films set in Yanbian Films shot in China Films directed by Na Hong-jin Showbox films 20th Century Fox films South Korean chase films 2010s Korean-language films 2010s South Korean films