Movies I've Seen: the Man from Nowhere

Somehow over the years, I've become a big fan of movies from South Korea. Not entirely sure how it happened, but either way a whole new area of cinema that I wouldn't otherwise have been exposed to was opened up to me.

Today, after watching Lady Vengence and Sympathy for Mr Vengence last week, I decided to watch 2010's highest earning Korean movie: the Man from Nowhere.

For those who don't know, it's about a man who befriends a young girl whose mum is involved in drug related crimes. One day, gangsters kidnap the girl and her mum, and the mysterious man goes out to try and rescue her.

The story is well paced and fairly interesting, the bad guys are believably evil, and the cops who are pursuing the male lead character, Cha Tae-sik, don't come off as cartoonish or unreasonable, which is always the risk in this kind of movie.

The fight scenes are excellent, the acting is also suprisingly good. The addition of what appeared to be a Bjork song at the end of the movie was kind of suprising though. Probably wasn't Bjork, but it sounded like it was.

I recommend it, particularly of fans of the Professional and Taken.

4 out of 5, I'd give it.