The Berlin File

Ryoo Seung-wan squeezed his way into the Korean film industry as a self-taught enthusiast whose dream was to make aggressive action films built on the attraction of actors and making minimum use of stunt doubles. After his rapid rise to ever bigger budgets and more sweeping action spectacles was brought to a halt by the box-office failure of the comic-bookishly overblown foolishness of Dachimawa Lee, he returned to the action genre with the simple but formalistically refined dialogue-based thriller The Unjust. Ryoo’s new film, The Berlin File, is a spectacular action comeback that bears the signs of lessons learned from previous failures and shows viewers a polished director at the peak of his powers. The Berlin File successfully plants the South Korean flag on the soil of the previously exclusively Hollywood genre of action-packed spy thrillers shot in international locations. The film’s creators strive hard to give the standard formula a local flavour with motifs involving relations between South and North Korea, but these are rendered in a strictly black-and-white form that plays, in the manner of tabloids, with the fiendishness of the North Korean usurpers of power. Purely in terms of genre elements, the screenplay also tries a little too hard, particularly in the countless twists in the style of switching sides and allies, which can lead to a feeling of apathy among viewers. Fortunately, however, Ryoo regularly goes back to the action sequences, which are built on maximum intensity and imaginative staging. Every conflict has some small detail that gives the action a bit of originality and purposefulness, while at the same time guaranteeing that the sequences stick in the viewers’ memory thanks to their eccentricity and unusualness. Whereas post-Bourne American action films are focused on creating an impressive jumble that’s held together only by the soundtrack and music, Ryoo always uses these expressive details to make the action clear and he sets it firmly in the given space, which becomes a part of the overall attraction. The introductory part of the film is brilliant in this respect, as it establishes expectations by drawing attention to the strangely shaped wound on the backs of the protagonists, the origin of which is explained in a long flashback passage. The final fight between the protagonists and the villain is enhanced by the work done with the setting comprising broad ropes of tall grass with scattered boulders and, in particular, the aggressive choreography with well-thought-out elements inspired by MMA. (03.12.2013)

A very well made film all round. Interesting, if a bit too complex for me at first, plot, good quality actors and cinematography, a strong Berlin atmosphere, and action scenes that grab the viewer and don't let go. Yeah, that's what I wanted, expected, and got. 4 stars. (09.04.2020)