''Cold Eyes'' (; lit. "Stakeout" or "Surveillance") is a 2013

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

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 ...

starring Sol Kyung-gu,

Jung Woo-sung Jung Woo-sung (born March 20, 1973) is a South Korean actor and the first Korean UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador. Jung started his career as a fashion model, rising to stardom and teenage cult status with the gangster movie '' Beat'' (1997), for which ...

, and

Han Hyo-joo Han Hyo-joo (Korean: 한효주; born February 22, 1987) is a South Korean film and television actress, model and singer. She is best known for her leading roles in television series such as ''Heaven & Earth'' (2007), ''Iljimae'' (2008), '' Brill ...

. A

remake A remake is a film, television series, video game, song or similar form of entertainment that is based upon and retells the story of an earlier production in the same medium—e.g., a "new version of an existing film". A remake tells the sa ...

of the 2007 Hong Kong film '' Eye in the Sky'', ''Cold Eyes'' is about detectives from the surveillance team of a special crime unit who work together to track down a highly efficient and dangerous robber and the crew he leads. It made its North American premiere at the

2013 Toronto International Film Festival The 38th annual Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) took place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada between September 5 and 15, 2013. '' The Fifth Estate'' was selected as the opening film and '' Life of Crime'' was the closing film. 75 films w ...

, and also screened at the 2013 Busan International Film Festival in the Open Cinema section.

Plot

After a job interview, Ha Yoon-joo, a woman with

photographic memory Eidetic memory ( ; more commonly called photographic memory or total recall) is the ability to recall an image from memory with high precision—at least for a brief period of time—after seeing it only onceThe terms ''eidetic memory'' and ''pho ...

gets hired by a police division where she meets members who to her surprise are largely unarmed and don't wear uniforms, as they specialize in surveillance rather than policing. She joins a team led by a man named Hwang, the division avoids arresting criminals and focuses exclusively on following them around to gather information. The surveillance team immediately runs into trouble when they can't identify a particular ring of robbers due to their masks and their efficiency in robbing the bank. In response, Hwang, Ha, and six other officers spend several weeks wandering around the city streets, tagging after people who match the criminal's physical description. When they finally find him, they put cameras outside his apartment. Meanwhile, James, the leader of the criminals, wishes to quit his line of work, but his elderly mentor responds by sending a man to kill him, whom he successfully defends against. When James's subordinates confer to discuss the next mission, they are successfully tracked by Hwang's officers who call in a

SWAT team In the United States, a SWAT team (special weapons and tactics, originally special weapons assault team) is a police tactical unit that uses specialized or military equipment and tactics. Although they were first created in the 1960s to ...

to subdue them. James, who was standing in a separate location, finds it necessary to murder one of Hwang's officers to escape. Later, after James is given criticism from the mentor, he attacks the mentor's hide-out, murdering the mentor and his body-guards. He then acquires a fake Thai passport and gets ready to leave South Korea. Hwang and Ha both feel sad at the death of their colleague. As a result, Hwang announces his resignation while Ha takes a leave of absence. However, while Ha is doing her laundry, she suddenly remembers using her good memory that she had randomly run into James in the past. Namely, on the day of her police interview, James had fleetingly walked past her inside a subway car, carrying a grocery store brochure. Ha runs to the grocery store and waits there, managing to catch sight of James again, and urgently notifies Hwang and his officers while staying on James's tail. When James walks into a tunnel, Hwang takes over the pursuit, but James recognizes Hwang (he had seen him in the mirror earlier when he was being followed) and stabs him. Luckily, though, the wound isn't fatal. Ha continues the pursuit into the subway tunnels but this time she is also recognized by James and eventually held hostage. When the SWAT team comes down to the subway tunnel, James lets go of Ha but escapes and runs deeper into the tunnels. As the chase goes on, James finds himself trapped between the advancing SWAT team and the mouth of the tunnel, which is being guarded by Hwang, who ran the long way around. As James decides to charge at Hwang, the latter, finding himself at the juncture of an oncoming train, stands his ground to shoot at James, risking a 50/50 chance that the train will flatten him. Fortunately, the train takes the other branch and James is hit by Hwang's revolver and killed. Encouraged by the success, Hwang withdraws his resignation, and together with Ha, goes on to execute further such missions including the pursuit of an international terrorist.

Cast

Main

* Sol Kyung-gu as Chief detective Hwang *

as James, leader of an international crime ring *

as rookie detective Ha Yoon-joo

Supporting

Jin Kyung Jin Kyung (born March 27, 1972) is a South Korean actress. Career Jin made her stage debut in 1998 and spent ten years in theater, before becoming active in film and television. She won Best Supporting Actress at the 50th Baeksang Arts Award ...

as Department head Lee * Lee Jun-ho as Detective Daramjwi ("Squirrel") * Kim Byeong-ok as mysterious broker/cobbler * Simon Yam as target of surveillance team (cameo) *

Byun Yo-han Byun Yo-han (born April 29, 1986) is a South Korean actor. He is best known for his roles in the television dramas '' Misaeng: Incomplete Life'' (2014), ''Six Flying Dragons'' (2015–2016), and '' Mr. Sunshine'' (2018). He has also appeared in ...

as M3 * Lee Dong-hwi as Parrot

Box office

''Cold Eyes'' smashed 2.17 million in the first week of release. After 17 days, it reached 4 million admissions. It reached the 5 million mark on July 27, with 5,506,409 total admissions at the end of its run.

Awards and nominations

; 2013 Buil Film Awards * Best Actress -

* Nominated - Best Supporting Actress -

* Nominated - Best New Actor - Lee Jun-ho * Nominated - Best Screenplay - Cho Ui-seok * Nominated - Best Cinematography - Kim Byeong-seo ;2013 Korean Association of Film Critics Awards * Nominated - Best Actress -

; 2013 Grand Bell Awards * Nominated - Best Costume Design - Jo Sang-gyeong ; 2013 Blue Dragon Film Awards * Best Actress -

* Nominated - Best Supporting Actor -

* Nominated - Best Cinematography - Kim Byeong-seo, Yeo Kyung-bo * Nominated - Best Lighting - Kim Seung-gyu * Nominated - Best Music - Dalparan, Jang Young-gyu * Nominated - Technical Award - Shin Min-kyung ;2013 Asia Pacific Film Festival * Nominated - Best Editing - Shin Min-kyung ; 2014 Asian Film Awards * Best Editor - Shin Min-kyung * Nominated -

Best Actress Best Actress is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organisations, festivals, and people's awards to leading actresses in a film, television series, television film or play. The first Best Actress awar ...

* Nominated - Best Supporting Actor -

* Nominated - Best Cinematography - Kim Byeong-seo, Yeo Kyung-bo ; 2014 Baeksang Arts Awards * Best Supporting Actress -

* Nominated - Best Director - Cho Ui-seok, Kim Byeong-seo * Nominated - Best Actor -

* Nominated - Most Popular Actor (Film) -

* Nominated - Most Popular Actress (Film) -

References

External links

* * * * {{hancinema film, Cold_Eyes, Cold Eyes 2013 films 2013 action thriller films 2013 crime action films South Korean action thriller films South Korean crime action films Films about security and surveillance Films about police officers South Korean remakes of foreign films Remakes of Hong Kong films Next Entertainment World films 2010s South Korean films