(Cannes) Action foot to the floor and deluge of pretense: for his first production with Huntspy film, South Korean actor Lee Jung-jae, star of Squid Gamemade the talk on Friday, before other South Korean films expected at the Cannes Film Festival.
Posted at 11:39 a.m.
This passage behind the camera will be judged successful by amateurs of Heat by Michael Mann — the weapons sometimes have more dialogue than the actors — and by fans of the Infiltrators (Martin Scorsese, based on the Hong Kong thriller internal affairs).
However, we may regret an overly ambitious narrative with misplaced flashbacks and a pronounced taste for hemoglobin.
Lee Jung-jae, 49, who plays one of the first two roles, set his plot in the 1980s in a South Korea that fears invasion by that of the North.
The director and actor plays the head of South Korean foreign intelligence pitted against his domestic counterpart in a furious North Korean mole hunt.
The enemy seems to be everywhere, maybe even in the office next door, even in the basements where torture is commonplace to obtain information.
Big contention between the two main protagonists: the character of Lee Jung-jae has already undergone the muscular interrogation of his colleague during a previous crisis with the northern neighbor and the paranoid wave that followed in the ranks of spies.
Far from the French series The office of legendsthe two heroes and their colleagues are experienced in gunfights and the scenes of bravery leave the viewer no respite.
Benefiting from a substantial budget, the feature film is also eyeing fans of the James Bond franchise with action that travels between Washington, Seoul and Bangkok.
In the end, no all-white or all-black character – Lee Jung-jae even ends up covered in gray dust at one point – and the best spy is not necessarily the one we had thought of.
After this film, presented out of competition, South Korea returns to the spotlight before Decision to leave by Park Chan-wook, revealed internationally with old boy.
Without forgetting The lucky stars, also in competition, a South Korean film directed by Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda. The filmmaker notably called on two South Korean figures, Song Kang-ho, star of Parasite (Golden Palm in 2019) and a K-pop star, IU (Lee Ji-eun).