The Yellow Sea

I was so impressed with Korean director Hiong-jin Na's debut thriller, The Chaser, that I decided to track down his second feature film, The Yellow Sea (2010). It has an interesting premise: The story of a cab driver in Yanji City, China in a region between North Korea and Russia. His wife goes to Korea to earn money, but he hasn't hear from her in 6 months. He plays mah-jong to try to make some extra cash, but this only makes his life worse-because he is a terrible player. However, he meets a crime boss who proposes to turn his life around by repaying his debt and and giving him the opportunity to reunite with his wife, just for one hit in Seoul, South Korea. The execution of the story is something else. There is plenty of the thrills that were seen in The Chaser, but this film has super human feats of strength, speed, and fighting ability-not to mention excessive over the top violence throughout the movie. It comes off as "Hollywood-cheesey" due to the unrealistic nature of many of the chase and fight sequences in the film. Honestly, it was a bit of a letdown after seeing the original and entertaining debut, The Chaser.