Film Review and Reactions #1 : City Hunter (2011)
City Hunter is a 2011 Korean action-drama series starred by Lee Mi Ho, Park Min Young, Lee Joon-hyuk, etc. The film's theme greatly revolves around tackling topics such as the depths of state corruption and the implications of vengeance. There are also a lot of plot twists in the series that are very shocking.
My personal rating for this film is:
| Aspect | Score |
|---|---|
| Cinematography | 9/10 |
| Visual Effects | 8/10 |
| Plot | 9/10 |
| Casting | 9/10 |
| Music | 9/10 |
| Plot Twists | 8 / 10 |
Explaining the Storyline - without Spoilers
This is the beginning storyline without spoilers but take the information here with a grain of salt as there are superb plot twists in the series that may destroy your initial understanding of the series.
Burma Attack
The story begins with five South Korean government officials plotting an act of revenge against North Korean government officials for committing a terrorist attack, detonating bombs, when the South Korean president went to Burma for a state visit. In this terrorist attack by North Korea, some high-ranking Korean officials were killed.
Revenge Plan/Mission
The revenge plan of the five South Korean government officials is to kill some North Korean government officials as a payback. They sent a squad of some 21 South Korean presidential bodyguards on this covert operation in North Korea (Operation Cleansweep). They were keen on making the operation very confidential. Even if the mission was successful and the squad executed fairly well, the five high-ranking officials made a last-minute decision to abort the plan and "sweep the mess" by killing the same 21-man squad they sent by sending snipers (also sent by the South Korean government) to ambush and kill the 21-man operatives while they were on their way back. This decision to abort the plan is due to their fear that the United States will abort its nuclear support for South Korea if the covert mission was discovered.
This shooting happened on the sea and the shot soldiers died from both shooting and drowning.
Two Best Friends
The tale of the two best friends who were some of the leaders of the 21-man team will later on progress the storyline of the story. These two best friends were named Lee Jin-pyo and Park Moo-yeol. Park Moo-yeol caught a bullet for Lee Jin-pyo underwater, thus saving Lee-Jin Pyo's life as Park Moo-yeol threaded the waters undetected for a while. The five officials thought that there were no survivors in the "cleaning operation".
Vow of Vengeance
Lee Jin-pyo vowed to avenge Park Moo-yeol's death by making the high-ranking officials pay. However, he only knows the identity of one of the five high ranking officials and didn't know the others'.
The Abduction of Poo Chai (Lee Yoon-sung)
He later on abducts Park Moo-yeol's infant son named Lee Yon-sung (nicknamed Poo Chai) from Moo-yeol's widowed wife and plans to use him (Poo Chai) for the revenge for the murder of his 21-man comrade, especially his best friend, and thus, also avenging Poo Chai's father's death. He didn't reveal the entire story to Poo Chai first. He then trains this infant from childhood to young adulthood with different skills such as martial arts and combat tactics in a remote place called the Golden Triangle. An abrupt attack happened in the village they were staying where Poo Chai where Poo Chai's mother figure as he grew up (not his true mother) was hurt. Jin-pyo was also hurt in this attack and was shot on his shoulder. This attack led Jin-pyo to reveal the truth about what happened to him and Moo-yeol to Poo Chai.
National Communication Network Team Undercover
Seven years later after the attack and after getting his doctorate credentials from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Poo Chai applies as a member of the National Communications Network Team of South Korea actually as undercover for his big mission to reveal all the five names in the hitlist and avenge his father's death.
He then later meets Kim Nana a member of the Presidential Bodyguard who also was his assigned martial arts instructor since every NCNT member was assigned a martial arts instructor by the agency.
The Warning
He is warned by Jin-pyo not to trust anyone and never fall in love, as doing so will put the people around him in danger. Well, you'll see through the series if Poo Chai applied this warning or not, and maybe not in the way you'd expect it.
SPOILER ALERT : Sentiments
Non-brutal Main Character
Contrary to several films about vengeance that I have watched, the main character in this film, Yoon-sung, is severely less brutal and quite humane to his targets despite some hand-to-hand combat and clever tactics to accomplish his objectives. Contrary to Jin-pyo who employs bloodshed and his self-imposed capital punishment on the five high-ranking officials, Yoon-sung believes that committing this kind of bloody and life-for-life revenge will just perpetually continue the cycle. Yoon-sung believes that despite their covert plans to capture the five officials by undercover means these five officials must face justice at the hands of the law and proper authorities.
This style of main character would amaze you since despite knowing that these five officials killed his father, well at least whom he thought was his real father, he did not put entire and all of the law on his hands. This might be a film to discourage the same form of violence as a form of revenge against a previously committed violence.
Father vs Son: The Revelation
It was later revealed in the film that Moo-yeol wasn't really Yoon-sung's real father and it was the last man on the hitlist, the President named Choi Eung-chan. This reminds me a lot of the Star Wars series and other films which at some point reveals a heart-wrenching plot twist about the conflict's true nature.
Choi Eung-chan, the President, is one of the five on the hit-list. But compared to the other four, his character was presented a little more timid way, despite his involvements in government bribery of the Parliament he didn't know about the great anomalies and corruptions that the other four officials in the hitlist were working on under the hood.
Yoon-sung even grew some attachments to Eung-chan and did not believe Jin-pyo's revelation of his corruption involvements at first since Eung-chan acted in a more compassionate and tamed way than the other four. However, after baiting and trapping Eung-chan on an undercover mission, he later learns the truth about his true father's (Eung Chan) lies.
Despite all his corruption involvements, my initial attachment to the kinder side of Eung-chan still lingered when he accepted his downfall when he faced his impeachment and stepped down from office.
Young-joo's Death
In one episode of the series, Jin-pyo pretended to be Yoon-sung and sent a tip to Young-joo, a pro-justice and anti-corruption lawyer and probably Yoon-jung's romantic adversary, through a text message about the escape of one of the five ranking officials in the hitlist. This high-ranking official's wrongdoings was just recently revealed by Yoon-sung and the official is already wanted and being hunted down by the government. Unknowingly to Young-joo, this was a trap. Yoon-sung found out about Jin-pyo's trap way late and did not manage to save Young-joo from the hands of the escaping official and his goons.
I was really shocked by the way his death by being beaten as he was being mocked by the official was morbidly and realistically portrayed in the film. The realism of the cinematography was so intense that I feel that I was also being beaten up when I saw Young-joo struggling to death under the hands of the goons just before he received a painful final blow.
The Death of Jin-pyo and His Confession
A near ending scene reveals the final moments of the fate of one of the main characters, Jin-pyo. Jin-pyo plans to kill Eung-chan but Yoon-sung tries to stop him. The ending is very dramatic and contrary to one of Yoon-sung's dream before that his fate will be death beside Kim Nana. It turned out that he went dying (if he did, we still don't know) beside Jin-pyo after catching a bullet for his father.
Before his final moments, Jin-pyo confessed that he was "City Hunter" to clear Yoon-sung of suspicions.
This ending is very dramatic and this part of the series played with my emotions more than I expected it to do so. Especially when Yoon-sung would rather commit suicide than commit a decision he'd rather not personally be able to take.
The Vague Ending
The ending of the film with Kim Nana and Yoon-sung seeing each other some time after the dramatic death of Jin-pyo was presented very vaguely and some people even comment that Kim Nana might be hallucinating. It is known very well how sweetly the romance between Yoon-sung and Kim Nana progressed through the film and yeah, maybe she was hallucinating or maybe not. Who knows? For me, the ending is creatively presented as an open-ended scenario. Maybe this will get cleared in a season 2 if there'll be.. after 10 years since its first release, who knows if there'll be light to the issue?