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Nowhere To Hide
on DVD (2001)
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Brief synopsis of Nowhere To Hide
NOWHERE TO HIDE, the sixth feature from Korean New Wave writer-director Lee Myung-Se (GAGMAN) is an arty police action film jam-packed with style and attitude. Fans of Asian directors Takeshi "Beat" Kitano and John Woo will recognize the iconographic character of Detective Woo (Park Joong-Hoon), a slouching, thuggish homicide cop in South Korea's port city of Inchon. Woo smiles like a mischievous child, but he carries a baseball bat in his car, and leads a stooge-like squad of cops brandishing iron nightsticks. Along with his straitlaced partner, Kim (Jang Dong-Kun), Woo embarks on a sleepless, months-long hunt for the brutal killer who murdered a drug kingpin on the city's centralized monument, 40 Steps. Woo and his gangster-like men violently clash with suspects in colorful freeze frames and slow-motion shots, accompanied by a pumped-up rock score. After being defeated in a slapstick dance-like fight, a drug runner leads Woo to a primary suspect's femme fatale girlfriend, Juyon (Choi Ji-Woo). The detective then begins an infuriating game of watch and wait. Full of visual panache and humor, Lee's stylish thriller climaxes in a glorious rain-drenched mano a mano between the brutally tenacious Woo and his elusive prey.
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Critics Reviews
Radio Times
Although it looks riotously modern, Lee Myeong-Se's police tale owes as much to Georges Méliès as it does to John Woo. The rain-streaked, neon-tinted vistas lend the complex plot and sardonic voiceover the feel of a latterday film noir. But Lee's use of slapstick silhouettes, varied film speeds, caption cards, ironic inserts and the occasional digitised image only serves to emphasise the director's endearingly playful spirit. Such stylistic preoccupations (and countless genre borrowings) could overshadow the action, but preventing that is Park Jung-Hun's superbly hard-boiled performance as a world-weary cop enduring endless stakeouts with rookie partner Jang Dong-Keon in pursuit of a gangland killer.
Sight and Sound
"...An accomplished action thriller....[Park] radiates a coiled energy born from years of tough graft and hard knocks -- a performance of soulful intensity..."
Time Out
There's a carefully researched police procedural underpinning Lee's breakthrough movie (a huge success at home and...
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