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 Guns,
fiery explosions, espionage, betrayal, brutal martial arts and brotherly
love. An odd mix for a film starring one of Korea’s most popular
singing idols, but that’s what you get with director Park Hong-soo‘s
Commitment.
As the
son of one of North Korea’s elite secret agents, the high command sees
good things in young Myung-hoon‘s future. Motivating the teen with the
lure of removal from the labour camp where he and his little sister have
been imprisoned in dark, filthy squalor since their father was killed in
Seoul; the boy turns out to be a prodigy and is sent into the South to
carry out his own missions. Upon arrival, Myung-hoon walks smack dab
into a war between two spy factions with an assassin mercilessly
knocking off members of Myung-hoon’s own sector until the teenager
becomes one of the hunted. And because the prospects of impending
death, capture by the Seoul police and his ongoing fear for his sister’s
safety wasn’t enough on Myung-hoon’s plate, as part of his cover he must
also navigate through the purgatory known as high school. Attempting to
keep a low profile, Myung-hoon’s intensive training hasn’t prepared him
for the school’s bullies, who just have to screw with the new kid. The
classmate he’s seated next to has it worse than him, as the entire class
taunts the girl for nothing more than keeping to herself; mentally and
physically assaulting her daily and stealing her money. Hye-in’s having
the same name as Myung-hoon’s baby sis, as well as her helplessness
against the thugs, triggers the spy’s protectiveness and he’s unable to
walk away from her troubles, sparking a tentative friendship - the only
one Myung-hoon’s ever had. Sadly, Myung-hoon hasn’t the time to
cultivate the relationship. While in living in Seoul, the command in
North Korea changes and suddenly Myung-hoon’s entire sector is an
endangered species. Old comrades will turn on the lad to save their own
necks and use every resource at hand to eliminate him.
Teenaged hitman movie are always fun: The mix of innocence and its
corruption, and clever ways to make those youthful, springy physiques
achieve stunning acts of violence is fascinating to watch. The most
notable of these recently would be
Hanna with Saoirse Ronan, the live
action comic book,
Kick-Ass, and Korea’s own box office
bonanza from earlier this year,
Secretly, Greatly. Not so
coincidentally, Commitment treads over much of the same ground as that
film. In
Secretly, Greatly, the young North
Korean super soldier disguised himself as the village idiot while
brutally, gracefully obliterating his targets. Not hedging its bets,
the filmmakers loaded their movie with not one, but three KPop-idol
pretty killers, all torn between duty, friendship and dreams of a
normal, non-homicidal life.
Commitment features an actual KPop idol, the leading sex god of the one
of Korea’s biggest groups,
Big Bang, the man called T.O.P, who
uses his government name, Choi Seung-hyun, for this film. Besides his
knicker-melting bass voice and fierce rap style, T.O.P is famous for his
model-perfect looks and suave, pimptastic swagger, so it’s interesting
to see him play a sweet-faced young man trained to kill without
hesitation that is somehow still innocent and even naïve. The wide-eyed
expression T.O.P employs throughout the film even sticks when he’s
brutally breaking bones or calmly shooting someone in the leg. For all
his murderous training, Myung-hoon is still a child whose only thought
is for the safety of the little sister he loves who becomes his
responsibility after their father is falsely labelled a traitor and
betrayed by his comrades. He has no clue about the social strata of
high school and the unchecked meanness of his peers. He’s instructed
not to trust or get close to anyone, which is a big problem when, A)
you’re a spy and everyone around you could end up dead at any time, and,
B), you look like Myung-hoon and have such dashing heroic instincts.
When Hye-in is dragged into an empty classroom by the tormenting gang of
boys and has her shirt torn open, Myung-hoon’s quick and brutal dispatch
of the bullies is the modern day version of the knight riding in on the
white charger to rescue the princess from the dragon - or in this case,
saving her from the dum-dums who end up in casts and neck braces when
it’s all over. The friendship (And I do mean friendship, there’s no
hormones allowed here, folks; can’t make the fangirls jealous. The
filmmakers go so far as to dress actress Kim Yoo-jeong in a series of
increasingly-oversized knit outfits with an unattractive 1970’s Dorothy
Hamill haircut.) that develops despite Myung-hoon’s best intentions
is quite touching. His innocent, puppy dog eyes gives insight to the
loneliness the young man must have endured all this time. His other
bond with an older lady, an undercover lieutenant in the North Korean
army who’s been waiting to go back to her country for years (Why, I
dunno) is also emotional. Myung-hoon is sweet and thoughtful to the
curmudgeonly gal, who is as maternal toward Myung-hoon as she was to his
father, years before.
Commitment’s supporting cast is pretty excellent with Kim Yoo-jeong as
classmate Hye-in, who says, ‘later for this,’ leaving the school after
being assaulted by the gang for the last time. The spunky young miss
follows her dreams and trains as a dancer, showing Myung-hoon there’s so
much more to the world than what is in front of their faces. In a small
role as Myung-hoon’s alleged foster mother, Kim Sun-kyung gets laughs as
a wry fellow agent with her own mission, who is curious about this young
killer in their home. Lee Ju-sil as the lieutenant with the handy food
tent, gives the cranky old bird just enough begrudging warmth without
being saccharine. Surprisingly, the popular child actress, Kim Yoo-jung,
who plays Myung-hoon’s beloved sister, is hardly in the film: She first
appears mostly in short flashbacks, then comes in about three-quarters
of the way through without much to do other than scream in terror or
look sad, which seems a waste.
The
action would be a big part of any teenage assassin flick, and the
staging for Commitment’s mix of gunplay and hand-to-hand combat is
harder and bloodier than one might reckon for this film’s expected
demographic. There’s plenty of moments of T.O.P looking cool and
deadly; riding a Ducati motorcycle and punching, kicking and shooting (and
occasionally just posing) his way through battalions of bad guys.
His spy-smart resourcefulness in times of crisis is fun, as well. The
camerawork is fairly quick cut and I’m not sure how many of T.O.P’s
stunts were his own, but it’s still enjoyable. Not as bombastic as the
action in
Secretly, Greatly, but there’s enough
car chases, ambushes, fiery blazes and grueling MMA-style fighting to be
entertaining and T.O.P delivers it admirably. That said, director Park
Hong-soo never stays too long on one development, and as mentioned,
T.O.P perpetuates this wide-eyed look, giving the impression that his
expressions run the emotional gamut from A to B, but in the scenes with
some of the older cast, particularly Lee Ju-sil as his surrogate North
Korean grandmother, you see a little of his potential. T.O.P shouldn’t
be looking for his name on an Oscar just yet, but given time and a
script with actual character development, he might have something.
Already a hit in its native Korea, Commitment is worth the price of a
ticket for action fans and an absolute must-see for fans of
Big Bang and the man called T.O.P.
~ The
Lady Miz Diva
Dec 6th,
2013
COMMITMENT opens in the US
in selected cities on Dec. 6 Click below for details and showtimes:
http://www.wellgousa.com/theatrical/commitment
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