Moderator One Armed Boxer Posted November 19, 2013 Moderator Share Posted November 19, 2013 Following the recent trend of North Korean agents operating in the South movies that seem to be the in-thing for Korean action cinema at the moment, 'The Suspect' looks like it could stand out from the crowd with a trailer which takes the bold move of featuring purely action - both from the movie and a series of behind the scenes shots. Directed by Won Sin-yeon and starring Gong Yoo in the lead, this looks like it could be a contender to rival 'The Berlin File' for Korea's best action movie of 2013. Check it out below - muCaJk9_9aY Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator One Armed Boxer Posted December 15, 2013 Author Moderator Share Posted December 15, 2013 The guys over at Twitch have given this a thumbs up from an action movie perspective, so count me in! - http://twitchfilm.com/2013/12/review-the-suspect.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Superfly Posted December 15, 2013 Member Share Posted December 15, 2013 Hoping this is played at the next NYAFF. (Yes I know its 7 months away but already anxious.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator One Armed Boxer Posted January 11, 2014 Author Moderator Share Posted January 11, 2014 Hoping this is played at the next NYAFF. (Yes I know its 7 months away but already anxious.) You don't have to wait that long, this hit selected cinemas in the US today - http://wellgousa.com/theatrical/the-suspect Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member daisho2004 Posted January 14, 2014 Member Share Posted January 14, 2014 I've been waiting to see this movie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Gwai LO Posted February 9, 2014 Member Share Posted February 9, 2014 how is the movie. everyone was waiting to see this but ive seen no reviews? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator One Armed Boxer Posted February 10, 2014 Author Moderator Share Posted February 10, 2014 how is the movie. everyone was waiting to see this but ive seen no reviews? There's a link to a review in post #2, otherwise I'll be waiting for the DVD before I can check this one out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator KUNG FU BOB Posted February 10, 2014 Administrator Share Posted February 10, 2014 I know that Well Go USA will be releasing this, but I'm not sure when. It was given a limited theatrical release in the USA on January 10th, and played in a bunch of major cities. Hopefully we'll have another beautiful R1 release from this company of the film real soon. The trailer is great, and I'm looking forward to seeing it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member yojimbo Posted February 23, 2014 Member Share Posted February 23, 2014 The story was about average. I wasn't sold on Gong Yu as a action star. Also, the bad guys felt extremely 2 dimensional. The action was pretty good. Comparable to the Bourne movies. And like the Bourne movies the shakey camera got in the way of enjoying the fight scenes. There are 2 major car chases. The 1st car chase is in the middle of the movie and it involves driving around in the crowded streets of some neighborhood on the hills. The production value is top notch and the money they spent shows on screen. I'd say the movie itself it about a 3 out of 5. The action is a 4 - 4.5 out of 5. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member rdenn Posted February 28, 2014 Member Share Posted February 28, 2014 kim won jin has a fight scene in this movie good to see him back in front of the camera Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator KUNG FU BOB Posted April 12, 2014 Administrator Share Posted April 12, 2014 kim won jin has a fight scene in this movie good to see him back in front of the camera "Sunny!" For those that don't know, Kiw Won-Jin is best known for his role as "Sunny the Scorpion" in OPERATION SCORPIO (1992, aka. Scorpion King; Pallette’). Mike Leeder clued me into the fact that he was in this film. Now... when is Well Go USA releasing this on Blu-ray??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator One Armed Boxer Posted May 4, 2014 Author Moderator Share Posted May 4, 2014 Now... when is Well Go USA releasing this on Blu-ray??? July 22nd KFB! With still no release date for the Korean DVD, it looks like this movie might be doing a 'Wrath of Vajra', with you guys getting it before it even hits native soil on home video! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member kingofkungfu2002 Posted May 4, 2014 Member Share Posted May 4, 2014 The HK bluray/dvd is out on May 15th http://www.dddhouse.com/v3/product_details.php?ProductID=14229 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator One Armed Boxer Posted May 27, 2014 Author Moderator Share Posted May 27, 2014 Korean DVD is hitting the shelves on June 5th - http://www.yesasia.com/global/the-suspect-2dvd-ost-limited-edition-korea-version/1035730874-0-0-0-en/info.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator KUNG FU BOB Posted May 27, 2014 Administrator Share Posted May 27, 2014 Korean DVD is hitting the shelves on June 5th - http://www.yesasia.com/global/the-suspect-2dvd-ost-limited-edition-korea-version/1035730874-0-0-0-en/info.html Glad to hear that you'll be getting it sooner than later. Also nice that it's finally going to get a release in it's own country! I'm impatiently awaiting it's July R1 release... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator One Armed Boxer Posted July 7, 2014 Author Moderator Share Posted July 7, 2014 Review has been posted by the guys over at fareastfilms - http://www.fareastfilms.com/reviewsPage/The-Suspect-2626.htm I actually got this in the mail last week, but it was a dreaded 'rattler', so I had to send it all the way back to HK unopened. Talk about frustrating, I'm hoping the replacement will be in my hands within a couple of weeks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator KUNG FU BOB Posted July 7, 2014 Administrator Share Posted July 7, 2014 Review has been posted by the guys over at fareastfilms - http://www.fareastfilms.com/reviewsPage/The-Suspect-2626.htm I actually got this in the mail last week, but it was a dreaded 'rattler', so I had to send it all the way back to HK unopened. Talk about frustrating, I'm hoping the replacement will be in my hands within a couple of weeks. It's marked on my calender! But this summer is going to be brutal on my moola! Some of these titles I'm going to have to pick up later as "used discs" off of eBay. RIGOR MORTIS …………....…JULY 8 JODOROWSKI’S DUNE…....…JULY 8 SOUTHERN COMFORT….....…JULY 8 THE RAID 2.…………….....……JULY 8 SCANNERS (Criterion)…..........JULY 15 BLACK DYNAMITE- Animated...JULY 15 DEADLY EYES…………….....…JULY 15 THE SUSPECT…………….....…JULY 22 TOM YUM GOONG 2.……….....JULY 29 That sucks about the rattler. Sorry to hear you're going to waiting longer to see it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member AlbertV Posted July 10, 2014 Member Share Posted July 10, 2014 July 22nd KFB! With still no release date for the Korean DVD, it looks like this movie might be doing a 'Wrath of Vajra', with you guys getting it before it even hits native soil on home video! Guess who already got this movie on the US Blu-Ray and is in fact, watching it to review tonight???? Hehehehehe....okay, I gotta stop being mean. But yes, I will be watching this tonight. My Blu-Ray copy came in two days ago and tomorrow is my day off but since it's my daughter's b-day tomorrow....going to watch this tonight!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member AlbertV Posted July 11, 2014 Member Share Posted July 11, 2014 Here is my review of the film http://www.kungfucinema.com/reviews/review-the-suspect-2013 And I'm gonna say this...I enjoyed Won Jin's fight scene Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member David Rees Posted July 15, 2014 Member Share Posted July 15, 2014 While it is overall a good film, the editing of the action scenes spoiled it for me, too many fast edits and close ups, you couldn't tell what the hell was going on half the time. My review based on the HK Blu ray is here: http://asianactioncinema.co.uk/the-suspect-review/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member luckystars Posted July 15, 2014 Member Share Posted July 15, 2014 While it is overall a good film, the editing of the action scenes spoiled it for me, too many fast edits and close ups, you couldn't tell what the hell was going on half the time. My review based on the HK Blu ray is here: http://asianactioncinema.co.uk/the-suspect-review/ David please check your inbox Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator One Armed Boxer Posted July 20, 2014 Author Moderator Share Posted July 20, 2014 I got through watching this one last night, so thought I'd weigh in with my opinion. 'The Suspect' stars Yoo Gong as a North Korean defector working as a driver for hire in Seoul. Forum members are most likely to recognise Gong as the Korean assassin from Miike Takashi's 2007 adaption of the Sega video game 'Like a Dragon', it's 'The Suspect' however which gives him his first leading action role, under the direction of Won Sin-yeon. Sin-yeon is himself a former stunt-man, and although 'The Suspect' is his fifth movie as director, it's actually his first attempt at making an all-out action flick, while his previous efforts have seen him dabbling in the likes of horror with his 2005 debut 'Scary Hair', and thrillers such as his 2007 effort 'Seven Days'. 'The Suspect' is essentially an A to B chase movie. It centers around a couple of main plot points - after Gong interrupts a murder attempt on a high level chairman who he's the driver for, he comes into the possession of a pair of glasses that have a powerful secret kept within their lenses, which results in setting up the chase scenario of the movie. The second plot point is Gong's personal mission of revenge to find the person who he believes to have killed his wife and daughter, and is in fact the main reason he's in South Korea. Sin-yeon handles the chase aspect of the movie with aplomb, as various parties merge to pursue Gong in the hopes of getting their hands on the glasses, led by Park Hee-soon who bears a striking resemblance to a young Lo Lieh. However the movie stumbles whenever it turns its focus to Gong's revenge mission, mainly as it feels shoehorned in to the many chase sequences that center around the bad guys attempting to retrieve the glasses. Gong himself hardly has any lines, and so as a result character development is pretty much non-existent. This shouldn't be a problem though, his main duty is to be a frantic man on the run, and he does this well, but when the movie tries to suddenly make us have an emotional connection with him through flashbacks of his family time in North Korea, it feels awkward and far too manufactured to try and get a connection from the audience. These same criticisms could also be applied to the movies occasional attempts at humour, which fall completely flat, but thankfully don't occur regularly, and Yoo Dai-in's role as a reporter is so poorly developed that she comes across more as a plot device than a character. However what the movie lacks in these departments it makes up for with its pacing, at 137 minutes 20 of these could easily be trimmed, but for the majority of its run time 'The Suspect' keeps things moving along briskly. Speaking of moving, this is something that the camera does almost non-stop. Fans of quick cut editing will have a lot to gripe about here, however that doesn't mean the action is a total write off. There's a lot of it, from a botched sky-diving operation, to several car chase scenes, to a couple of effective fight scenes (one of the movies fight consultants is actually an ex-North Korean army defector). Everyone involved sight the Bourne movies as influencing the style of 'The Suspect', and it's definitely there to see, with the camera work adding to the frantic and chaotic nature of the scenes. However there are a couple of occasions when the camera gets so frantic that I actually lost track of what was happening and who was hitting who, which is an epic fail in the construction of any action scene. Thankfully there is more good here than bad though, and so ultimately while these moments are frustrating, they're still forgivable. Of course for Hong Kong movie fans there’s also a brief appearance by boot master Kim Won-jin, who lit up the screens in a few HK movies of old such as 'Operation Scorpio' and 'Women on the Run'. While I don't think there's ever been any official clarification of it, the general opinion seems to be that Won-jin quit working in HK and went back to Korea due to health reasons, however in his one fight scene here, despite it being over twenty years since his glory days, he still pulls off some of his trademark gravity defying kicks. All in all 'The Suspect' is a worthy watch for action movie fans. It clearly echoes previous Korean movies such as Ryoo Seung-wan's 'The Berlin File' and Jang hoon's 'Secret Reunion', however its lack of pretension earn it a lot of good will, even if it occasionally feels like it stretches that good will a little far (the absurdity of the last scene is probably the best example of this). If you're in the mood for some leave your brain at the door action, then chances are there are enough car chases and fisty cuffs within its run time to leave the viewer satisfied. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Lionclaw Posted July 23, 2014 Member Share Posted July 23, 2014 I enjoyed this movie a lot more than I did "A Company Man," the last Korean movie I bought. I went into this movie practically blind so I'm glad I don't have to return this.This movie moves very fast and had me interested but for the love of god people need to stop copying Hollywood. The action was pretty solid but I shouldn't have too strain to see who hit who, or what actually is happening. If the fight scenes were shot more like A Company Man, or The Man From Nowhere it would have improved the movie a lot. The acting was good but some of the events that happen in this movie ask for too much suspension of belief. If this movie wasn't so high budget and the acting was any worse then I would have been completely thrown out of the movie. (The hanging scene and ending sequence are the main offenders of this.) Anyways, this is a solid action movie and a good watch but it doesn't need the quick cuts and editing. Hollywood should be influenced by Korean cinema, not the other way around in my opinion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator KUNG FU BOB Posted July 30, 2014 Administrator Share Posted July 30, 2014 I got through watching this one last night, so thought I'd weigh in with my opinion... Great review and behind-the-scenes info. I enjoyed this movie a lot more than I did "A Company Man," the last Korean movie I bought. Me too, but I still thought that A COMPANY MAN was a good film. Good points about the action too. It could've been better, but strangely it didn't turn me off as much as that method usually does. Somehow (perhaps the stars lined up in just the right manner, I'm not sure...) my wife and I watched three Asian films (they all just happened to be South Korean) together within a 48 hour time span! YES! F U HOUSEWIVES OF NYC! THE SUSPECT (2014, South Korea) I guess I felt a lot like One Armed Boxer did, but enjoyed it just a little bit more. It wasn't the classic that it seemed like it could've been (based on the killer trailer), and my lady and I kept guessing the next cliche that would happen, right before it would happen. But it was still very entertaining as a big popcorn type of film, and never had any significantly long dull spots. There was plenty of action, and it was varied (both car and foot chases, fighting, stunts), which was nice. I absolutely freaked out when Kim Won-Jin (Sunny The Scorpion King from OPERATION SCORPIO, who now goes by Yuen Jung) appeared on screen, getting positively fan-boy excited, and was thrilled with his fight scene. I love that he has such an unassuming face- he looks like a mild-mannered accountant or something- but then he starts busting out these great moves. He was tearing up the hero with a flurry of fantastic kicks, and when his shirt gets ripped, it revealed him to be in amazing shape! The dude looks terrific for a guy that was supposedly so sick. Wish I could find out more about him! Normally I hate super-quick edits during fight scenes, but I didn't mind them in this. That style seemed to fit perfectly with the rest of the film and story. So, though they are frantic, the fights still seemed brutal and had plenty of impact. Don't go into this expecting anything revelatory to modern action films. It's just a good, old fashioned action film, and I think if you go into it knowing that, you'll enjoy it. Thumbs up. 7.5/10 (Note: Though Well Go USA's releases are usually skimpy on extras, this one has nothing except the trailer). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator One Armed Boxer Posted July 31, 2014 Author Moderator Share Posted July 31, 2014 (Note: Though Well Go USA's releases are usually skimpy on extras, this one has nothing except the trailer) That's a pity, the Korean release actually comes with a 2nd DVD with over an hour of extras all dedicated just to the action design of the movie. While sadly Kim Won-jin is nowhere to be seen, there's an interesting section on the consultant they had in for the fight scenes who actually used to be an army member in North Korea. It's explained that while in South Korea the army does a lot of taekwondo practices and alike, in North Korea the combat is focused purely on what part of the body you can punch to instantly kill a man, hence a lot of the fight scenes involve punches to the throat. There's also a deleted fight scene which showcases this style, but I can understand why it was deleted. As usual for a Korean release, there's no English subtitles on any of the extras, but KFB as you know, I have a translator. Normally I hate super-quick edits during fight scenes, but I didn't mind them in this. That style seemed to fit perfectly with the rest of the film and story. So, though they are frantic, the fights still seemed brutal and had plenty of impact. Yeah I agree it didn't detract too much, it was only frustrating when it made me lose track of what was happening. The perfect example of this for me was when in one of the car chases they hurtle down a stairway, I actually thought it was Hee-soon behind the wheel of the car that was in pursuit, but once the car flips it then cuts away to Hee-soon who's driving in a completely different area. I was left scratching my head as to where each character was actually supposed to be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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