Deliver Us From Evil is a 2020 South Korean film that was directed and written by Hong Won Chan(Office). The film stars long time beloved actors Hwang Jung Min(Real World, A Bittersweet life) and Lee Jung Jae(Along With The Gods, Real World). During the time of release, the film took third place at the South Korean box office while also being met with good reviews.
An Assassin tries to save the daughter of a women who he met a year before but a gangster worse than evil himself stands in his way......
I have to be honest about this film too. It wasn't that I had a lot of expectation for Deliver Us From Evil because I really didn't. If you watch the trailer and came into this film expecting to get what you saw, then the film doesn't disappoint. If you aren't like me and haven't been experiencing South Korean cinema since the early 2000s then your standards won't be much when it comes to films like this. Deliver Us From Evil isn't a bad film at all. What the problem was is that South Korea has a ton of slasher gangster film's in it's history so when creating films like these, you either go big or go home. Story for this film doesn't go big because the plot has been done before. Little girl gets kidnapped for her body parts and Assassin goes on the hunt to save her. Viewers could see this plot done better or more effectively in the classic film Man From Nowhere. Super violent gangster kills everyone in his path has gotten a bit old in the Korean film script scene too. Other older films showcase this type of character. Films such as New World, Dirty Carnival, or even more recent film, The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil. Nothing new was brought to the table in this film that South Korea hasn't already done a thousand times over which leads me to understand why the film didn't take top spot in South Korea. What was good about this film since I've mostly said what bothered me so far? The cinematography was slick as the film goes from different places around Asia. I love scenes that uses shots of the sky during different times in the day to signal a new event is bound to occur. Plus the action sequences that used slow motion to make an impact during the knife fights kept my attention. These were some of the best gangster action scenes that I had seen in awhile. I only wish that the story would have been a bit more enervative to make Deliver Us From Evil stand out more. The ending was very typical Korean film. Seasoned South Korean Cinema fans could see that ending coming a mile away. I felt nothing watching that unfold. Just as I felt nothing in my heart for most of this film full of recycled themes.
Lee Jung Jae has always been a good gangster as seen in New World. All the performances made this film quite a gritty experience but it wasn't anything spectacular. The actor who stood out to me the most was Park Jung Min who played a cross dressing character. Acting ability wise, he stole the the show. The character was a new direction for him and he got to be a bilingual character. I remember seeing his acting debut in 2011 film Bleak Night, while thinking that he had a special quality about him when he was on screen.
Deliver Us From Evil showed me mixed elements from other classic Korean films. Elements that made those films great but caused this film to feel unoriginal. I'm really sad because I haven't found a good Korean film in the bunch that's come out over the pass year. South Korea needs to get back in the game again.
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