The Yellow Sea reviews (2010)

The Yellow Sea details

Formats:	18 DVD, Blu-ray
Starring:	Yun-seok Kim, Jung-woo Ha
Director:	Hong-jin Na
Genres:	Action/Adventure, Drama - Crime, Thriller - Crime, World Cinema - Korean
Studio:	EUREKA VIDEO
Original title	Hwanghae

Name	Discs
The Yellow Sea	18 Feature
The Yellow Sea - Bonus Features	18 Bonus

DVD Information

Run time:	2 hours 37 minutes
Rental release:	26 Mar 2012
Main languages:	Korean
Subtitles:	English

Name	Discs
The Yellow Sea	18 Feature

Blu-ray Information

Run time:	2 hours 37 minutes
Rental release:	26 Mar 2012
Main languages:	Korean
Subtitles:	English

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Most helpful review The Yellow Sea

Bone-crunching action and spectacularly choreographed chase sequences that defy belief. Enough to fill 3 action films!

By Tarumatu (39 reviews) from Brighton, England , 14 May 2012

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS Show review anywayHide

[Highly rated reviewer]

Yanji is a place which exists somewhere near the border between North Korea, China and Russia, a mild-mannered cab driver Gu-nam (Ha Jung-Woo) is given an offer to clear his debts by traveling to Seoul to kill a businessman. Gu-nam is one of three central characters to this film. The second character is the man who has given Gu-nam this task, small-time racketeer Myun-Ga (Kim Yun-Seok). The third main character is Mr Kim (Seong-Ha Cho), an organised crime boss in Seoul who gets caught up in Gu-nams activities.

Whilst making preparations for the killing, Gu-nam also looks for his wife, who has left him. Gu-nam is clearly out of his depth, and things start to go from bad to worse to the completely incomprehensible! There’s double-crosses, triple-crosses, human trafficking, international gangland violence, bone-crunching action and spectacularly choreographed chase sequences that defy belief. Enough to fill 3 action films!

Typical of Korean films of this ilk, everything is raw, visceral, and bloody realistic. The kill-rate is off the chart, and most were caused by some epic knife-fighting. The killing sprees were relentless, none more so than by the brutal Myun-Ga who seemed to revel in dispelling more and more bloody mayhem. Myun-Ga was so watchable that you didn’t want him to stop, much the same as Min-sik Choi’s Kyung-chul stole the show in the equally demented ‘I Saw the Devil’.

‘The Yellow Sea’ is by no means a perfect film, the last third of the film was let down by some dizzyingly poor camerawork. It could be half an hour shorter, the film only really gets going near the first hour mark. Witnessing Gu-nam’s transformation from a hapless taxi driver into a Houdini clone and one-man killing machine was probably a step too far.

For such a simplistic plot, director Na Hong-jin ekes out an incredible amount of drama. Though by the end the plot is thick with confusion, to be honest i actually didn’t know whether I understood it all or not! But there is a lot to admire in the ‘Yellow Sea’, just park your brain and suspend all disbelief and enjoy the type of action that the Koreans have become masters at over the past decade.
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Great story but...Why?

By a customer , 20 Feb 2013

Good, interesting story. But why the violence? This film has only one target audience - the male of the species and probably a young one and probably one who wants to hurt people by proxy.
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Stay with it. Very good film

By Diamond-dog (15 reviews) , 22 Oct 2012

Great film, pretty grippy thriller and a mix of action and twisty plot lines makes it easy to watch to the end. At two and half hours you could easily watch it without getting bored.
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HOT DOG

By apoldion (2 reviews) , 10 Aug 2012

I had my expectations raised by a review whilst it was doing the festival circuit, but Yellow Sea didn't disappoint in the least.

A gritty realist tragedy that's informing too, the director manages to draw the viewer into the action more than any recent Hollywood offering i've seen. Keep it up and don't sell out, there's more to this movie than ten pulp blockbusters.
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The Chinese don't use guns, just carving knives and meat cleavers!

By Saltyjizzle (2 reviews) , 21 Jul 2012

A bit slow to get started but your patience will be rewarded with savage blood letting and car chases a plenty!
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The red sea!

By unclerico (20 reviews) from Ayr , 13 Jul 2012

[Highly rated reviewer]

Don't let subtitles put you off, this is quality film making. Plot is a little thin but the ultra-violence papers over the cracks. Knives and hatchets are the order of the day!
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