Worth: $12.00
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Cast:
LEE Sung-min, NAM Joo-hyuk, YOON Je-Moon, PARK Min-young
Intro:
... a well-made actioner that will please genre fans.
A remake of Atom Egoyan’s 2015 movie of the same name, this version switches the Holocaust for the victims of Japanese occupied-Korea during the early 20th century.
A retired soldier (LEE Sung-min) in his 80s suffering from dementia lives a pleasant existence working at a TGIF restaurant, but his world is turned upside down by the passing of his wife. Believing that he has fulfilled his duties as a father and husband, he executes a long-developed plan to exact vengeance against the people who betrayed, assaulted and murdered his family when he was young. With five names tattooed on his fingers to help with his deteriorating memory and carrying an old WWII revolver, only one young accomplice (NAM Joo-hyuk) can stop him on his path to bloodshed.
Remember plays out as a revenge fantasy about a tired old man who is good at killing people. While one can accept the premise of a man suffering from dementia being an effective assassin, it’s the problematic tone and message that beggars belief.
Throughout the film, there are nods to the heavy weight that Koreans who betrayed their country to the Japanese have had to live with. Making excuses such as “Back then, Koreans were poor and powerless” or “We were simply living the days” or the particularly memorable line, “Independence seemed like a nonsense, and we had to accept Korea as a country ceased to exist.”
Powerful moments like this are the standouts, but the problem is that they are uttered in a generic vengeance flick that glorifies violence, terrorism and torture (a similar fate suffered by Joel Schumacher flicks Falling Down, Eye for an Eye, and A Time to Kill). The subtext is not allowed time to breathe properly, with the film more interested in spilling blood.
Remember never questions its dangerous and disturbed protagonist’s actions. He has no qualms interrupting a public parade and executing someone; he forces a young, innocent man to be his driver and accomplice.
Towards the film’s conclusion, there is an attempt to question our hero’s actions, but by that point, the stylish choreography and bombastic music accompanying the set-pieces have washed everything away. It’s as if someone during the production sat back and asked, ‘Um, are we actually supposed to side with him planting an explosive at a public diner?’ The last segment of the film is definitely the most interesting as a result, but it belongs in a different film.
On a positive note, LEE Sung-min (The Spy Gone North) gives it 110%. It’s a memorable performance that blends the bad-ass retiree played by Bob Odenkirk in Nobody and weirdly enough, Takashi Shimura’s frail old man in Akira Kurosawa’s Ikiru; a curious cocktail that works in maintaining the audience’s interest.
Action highlights include the opening car chase and a fight scene in a gangster’s hideout.
If better balanced and the subtext explored more intimately, this could have been a fascinating study of a gaping wound in Korea’ s history; as it is, it’s still a well-made actioner that will please genre fans.
