'Escape' REVIEW: Faster Than A Bullet
‘Escape’ REVIEW: Faster Than A Bullet
Kyu-nam sprinting towards freedom / Still taken from Escape’s IMDb page
In Lee Jong-pil’s Escape, we start inside a cramped barracks lit by menacing red lights. North Korean soldiers, from whom the supreme leader of the DPRK expects nothing but obedience and discipline, are fast asleep in their perfectly lined-up cots, all uniformly lying straight and completely motionless as if they were bodies in a morgue.
One of the soldiers about to be discharged from military service and away from the North and South Korean border, Kyu-nam (Lee Je-hoon), suddenly rouses back to life and covertly runs into the cold darkness. In one rapid sequence, we see what he’s been up to every night: painstakingly mapping out an escape route with twigs and detailing the terrain on yellowish paper he calls a map.
It’s important to note that at this point in the opening, no lines of dialogue are spoken, but we already learn a great deal about Kyu-nam’s craftiness, his determination to achieve his great dream of freedom, and the urgency of his mission through the film’s straightforward visual language and Je-hoon’s expressive eyes.
Lee Je-hoon as Kyu-nam. / Still taken from Escape’s IMDb page.
Editor Lee Gang-hee employs frenetic cuts in playing out the opening scene. Kyu-nam sprints through grasslands and empty fields, goes through vents, crawls on the ground, and plants his landmarks — all shown in quick succession. But just as his time outside is almost up, the scene winds down and reveals what he’s always been looking at and working towards: the warm lights of a free country. This allows us, the audience, to bask in its glow as Kyu-nam looks longingly toward it.
Even if you’re unfamiliar with the politics of the Korean peninsula or the topic of North Korean defectors in general, you’ll still get a sense of the intense yearning for freedom afflicting Kyu-nam. Much like any other Korean thriller made today, Escape’s greatest strength lies in its swift and undemanding visual storytelling, amplifying its mainstream appeal despite the conventional cat-and-mouse tale it tells.
Aside from establishing Kyu-nam’s motivation for concocting a suicidal escape plan, the opening scene also sets a precedent for what the film has in store for us: a fast-paced thriller that stops for no one.
Koo Kyo-hwan as Hyun-sang / Still taken from Escape’s IMDb page
And it really does not stop, even outrunning subplots and side characters it introduces. At some point in the film, Kyu-nam encounters a ragtag unit of nomadic freedom fighters led by a nameless leader played by Microhabitat’s Esom.
The group is trying to find one of their own who was abducted by the military, and the film gives some attention to their task by cutting away to scenes featuring the man they’re looking for. However, this subplot amounts to nothing, as the group serves merely as a deus ex machina to save Kyu-nam from almost being captured before disappearing completely from the movie.
But the biggest casualty of this faster-than-bullet pace is the relationship between Kyu-nam and his pursuer, Hyun-sang (Koo Kyo-hwan), a North Korean State Security Officer and a childhood “friend” of his.
The film tries to paint the relationship between the two as a tragic rivalry and falling out between close friends, yet it never slows down to meaningfully explore their supposedly close connection. Instead, it depicts them in a bully-bullied dynamic, where Hyun-sang, a member of the elite, bullies a subordinate who will soon become a mere peasant.
Even though Lee Je-hoon and Koo Kyo-hwan are able to inject tenderness into their performances in the film’s final stretches, by refusing to delve deeper into Kyu-nam and Hyun-sang’s past lives and implied friendship, the film dampens the emotional punch of a tragic and unexpected reveal at the end that touches on the causality of Kyu-nam’s fateful decision to escape from his home country.
Kyu-nam and Hyun-sang reunited / Still taken from Escape’s IMDb page
Unsatisfying plot points aside, Escape is still an exceptionally well-made thriller. It follows the usual formula, sure, but it is imbued with enough creativity and kineticism in its visual flair and passion in the performances of its leads that you can’t help but be entertained.
In a landscape dominated by insincere blockbusters and mediocre Netflix originals, it’s a breath of fresh air to see a well-crafted and genuinely exciting action thriller. It’s the cinematic equivalent of a serving of atsara at a samgyeopsal place. When you get overly satiated with the taste of the three-layer meat being served to the point of repulsion, there’s always a dish to wash all the unsavory taste down.
‘Escape’ is now showing in cinemas nationwide.
