Special Agent (2020) - Lee Jae-yoon, Gong Jung-hwan

[laagi]

Consider this me returning the favor @One Armed Boxer for your review of 'Ballerina' (and yes obviously, I haven't watched it yet).

I'm sure many of you have been spending the last three years wondering about this very question.

https://cityonfire.com/south-koreas-answer-to-tak-sakaguchis-reborn-watch-the-trailer-for-special-agent/

Well wonder no more dear brothers and sisters for I am here to provide you with an answer.

And to make it short it's probably NO!

 

English subbed trailer

https://www.facebook.com/eontalkmovies/videos/special-agent-2020-특수요원-movie-trailer-eontalk/1644802129014182/

 

So where do we start with this one. First of all the beginning is a bit of a drag because it only serves one purpose to establish some kind of (back) story of which I won't mention any because honestly it's not really worth going into.

Because the rest of the movie is just wilderness and places our protagonist in a cat and mouse game for survival.

Now that may sound like some basic and good ingredients for an action movie. Unfortunately while there are glimpses of what could've been the execution pretty much ruins almost all of these ambitions.

First some of the positives. Being shot entirely on location the movie does have a realistic and raw feel this is particularly true in the way fights are executed. Most of them taking place in unforgiving forest terrain. There's no fancy choreography this is just plain and simple bloody survival. Although truth be told, I've asked myself more then once just how many stabs a human body can take. Let's hope I'll never have to find out.

However, while the fights are aplenty they are more or less ruined by the poor editing and "wild" camera. There's plenty of examples here on how NOT to shot action. Which is frustrating to say the least! And also proves once and for all just because someone is a good stuntman or martial artist doesn't make them a good director.

I'd probably be more forgiving if it weren't for the butchered action. Heck, I'd even go as far as saying it's actually not that bad. But as is it's a bit difficult to recommend.

Is it bad? No. Is it good? No. The best compliment I can give it is it's average. Worth a look for the knife fights...

Oh yeah, the movie does have some unintended humor with some of the wildest battle cries I've (ever) heard. 

Edited October 10, 2023 by laagi

[One Armed Boxer]

12 minutes ago, laagi said:

Consider this me returning the favor @One Armed Boxer for your review of 'Ballerina' (and yes obviously, I haven't watched it yet).

You truly are the kindest guy on the forum @laagi , guess I won't be rushing to check this one out then, but that's not to say you shouldn't rush to check out 'Ballerina'!

[laagi]

Here's the final fight of Special Agent and truth be told on second viewing I might have been a bit too harsh. What do you think @One Armed Boxer?

 

[One Armed Boxer]

& therein lies the great @laagi paradox of our times - do I watch the final fight and find myself impressed, but then have no motivation to watch the rest as I've seen how it ends, or do I hold out and watch the whole thing, only to agree you weren't being to harsh and that I just wasted 90 mins of my life?

[laagi]

@One Armed Boxer

[ShaOW!linDude]

So, my takeaway from this is that Special Agent is really just Average Agent. ('Average' now having become the benchmark adjective for subpar MA action.)

[laagi]

9 minutes ago, ShaOW!linDude said:

So, my takeaway from this is that Special Agent is really just Average Agent. ('Average' now having become the benchmark adjective for subpar MA action.)

Is this your conclusion before or after watching the fight scene above... trying to help out @One Armed Boxer here.

[ShaOW!linDude]

2 hours ago, laagi said:

Is this your conclusion before or after watching the fight scene above... trying to help out @One Armed Boxer here.

Before, but I stand by my conclusion having now watched it, which is...

Spoiler

If that's the finale...meh. Almost of quarter of it is a flashback. There's lots of stabby-stab that apparently has little effect. In one segment, the combatants are obscured by the rocks so any intricacy of the battle is hidden. There is a constant resorting to one guy atop the other trying to pin him to the ground. I get that it's meant to appear brutal and, in a sense, realistic, but it just doesn't. And the odds of multiple occasions of rolling down on rocky, wooden mountainside and either not accidently impaling yourself with your blade or, greater yet, bashing your skull open or breaking an arm or leg against one of those exposed boulders...I mean, come on. A fighter with a broken appendage would've amped up the cinematic tension some. 

Maybe I'm just feeling peckish. Should've probably get a snack...or coffee.