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The Yellow Sea(황해)

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Korea, United States, Hong Kong · 2010
Rated R · 2h 37m
Director Na Hong-jin
Starring Ha Jung-woo, Kim Yoon-seok, Cho Seong-ha, Lee Cheol-min
Genre Drama, Thriller, Crime

The region where the borders of North Korea, China, and Russia come together, forms a sort of modern day wild west, where more than half of the population relies on illegal activity in order to survive. In Yanbian, on the Chinese side of the border, Gu-nam wiles away his days driving a cab and spends his nights getting drunk and gambling. His wife went to Seoul to work and send back money, but it’s been months since he has heard from her. When local crime lord Myun offers to erase Gu-nam’s debts in exchange for a contract killing in Seoul, Gu-nam reluctantly accepts.

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What are people saying?

What are critics saying?

60

Time Out by David Fear

Like fellow countryman Park Chan-wook's vengeful epics, this man-on-the-run thriller knows how to deliver a rush; unlike those superior tales of lives on the edge, that's the only trick up its sleeve.

80

Variety by Justin Chang

Gushing more blood and possessing more stamina than any number of Hollywood hack-'em-ups, writer-director Na Hong-jin's pulse-pounding, mordantly funny genre piece is at times messily convoluted, yet serious and full-bodied enough to achieve a genuinely tragic dimension.

80

Empire by Kim Newman

More startling than an unexpected punch in the noggin, Na Hong-Jin's unusual thriller could have the highest knife count this side of Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares. A violent thrill-ride to a dark new corner of Asian cinema.

90

The New York Times by Manohla Dargis

A rush of a movie from South Korea that slips and slides from horror to humor on rivers of blood and offers the haunting image of a man, primitive incarnate, beating other men with an enormous, gnawed-over meat bone.

70

Village Voice by Michael Atkinson

If anything, Na's film is too much of a good thing, exceeding credibility too often (the punching-bag hero is far too lucky - good and bad - and absorbs a hilarious amount of punishment) in its pursuit of despairing violence. But that's the Korean way, and Na nails down the bottom feeder realism while slouching toward video-game hyperbole.

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