Confidential Assignment(literal English title is Corporation.) is a 2017 Korean film that was written by Yoon Hyun Ho with Hwang Jo Yeon and was directed by Kim Sung Hoon. The film stars Hyun Bin, Yu Hae Jin, and Kim Ju Hyeok. It became the second most viewed film of 2017 in South Korea only to be beaten by another film called Taxi Driver. Somehow the film had longevity in the box office, selling millions of tickets during its run as it moved from second place to first place in the manner of a week.
A North Korean soldier is sent to South Korea to catch a North Korean soldier who is involved in illegal activities. He must seek the help of a South Korean police officer to help him navigate through South Korea. These two men from different ways of living couldn't be anymore different but little does the police officer know, The soldier has deeper reasons for catching the defect soldier.
Confidential Assignment is a fun film. Nothing too mind blowing or extraordinary. It's an action film with little bits of elements of comedy. Much of the plot's cause and effect that leads into the conflict has been used before by other movie scripts. I was watching the first half of the film unfold while feeling like I was suffering from major Deja Vu. Many Korean actions films(not all) use the same elements of action in their films. The good thing about this is that I can at least look at each action film and find something that sets most of them apart.(Can say the same for Chinese action films or some Korean drama.) What makes Confidential Assignment unique is the qualities of connection between the two characters. There's a wacky sense of comedy in their connection that makes you warm up to the film. Not even the action scenes took the cake for me. Instead the heartfelt relationship between the two leads is the best thing to ever happen to this film. The action kind of falls into the same bag of tricks that every other K-action film has reached their hand into. Well Except for one thing that I noticed that I will explain in a bit.
I haven't watched anything with Hyun bin in it in a while. He's been in other film but I just haven't seen them. His character in this film was probably perfect for him since he has played tall, dark, mysterious characters before. Most notably in the drama Snow Queen from many years ago(Gosh, there's the reminder of my age again!). You would imagine a North Korean soldier to be really straight laced in his behavior. The character is almost boarder line robotic except for when he's really forced to show emotion in select few situations. I've read that many people in North Korea are taught to hold their emotions in check. So if that's the case, his portrayal was spot on the money. When he had those scenes that brought up his true emotions from the depths of his soul, I felt that shit just by looking him in the face. My heart felt the ton of hurt his character had in this heart. Hae Jin's character was the underdog that was expected to be the provider for everyone. His character ends up in their situations solely because of money. When a man has a big family full of females, those females expect you to put food on the table….. They expect the newest iPhone too(LOL, people who have seen the film will get this joke.). His character is responsible for the comedy in the film. Shade was thrown at North Korea so bad in his jokes that I'm expecting North Korea to be sending them a gift missile sometime soon. He was the underdog that did a lot more than most would expect from him. My feelings for the two characters really turned into me rooting for their friendship to survive all the conflict. Ju Hyeok has been an actor that I've seen acting for years. I don't have any doubts based on his acting talent. He has the villain role down packed. My reaction when I saw he was in this film was happiness at the type of cast that came together. Ju Hyeok's glare spells out evil plan as day.
Lets go back to what I noticed in the stuns of this film. First, I didn't notice any special way that this film was shot. The scenes are shot pretty normally. Now the stuns are high action in the same style that other Korean films are shot BUT I noticed that Hyun Bin was doing a lot of high flying action sequences here. For example, he was always jumping through windows into the outside world constantly. What the hell was with this character and jumping out windows like he had a set of wings. I got an adrenaline rush every time he did it though. Guess this goes back to what I said about him being robotic……
Confidential Assignment was an alright film. If I had to grade it, I would give a passing grade. I'm not sure if I agree with this film being the second most watch film of 2017 in South Korea so far. Maybe it was the cast or the shady way South Korea keeps making bad portrayals of what they think North Korean soldiers are like(There's some truth to it, I'm sure.) I think everyone kind of has an idea of what they think North Korea and the people in it are like. Mixing someone from that world and someone from South Korea together makes for a story that peaks our interest about the closed off land.
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