Su-hyuk (Jung Woo-sung) has emerged from ten years in prison with a clarity of purpose — regain the trust of his girlfriend Min-Seo, get to know In-bi, the daughter he’s never met, and most importantly, walk away from his old criminal life. That’s the simple premise of A Man of Reason (Bohoja), which finds Jung pulling double duty in front of the camera in the lead role, and behind it in his directorial debut. A thriller that’s all clean narrative lines with bursts of kinetic action, it doesn’t push the boundaries of South Korea’s ever evolving genre cinema, but it’s an effective and efficient entry that marks the actor-turned-filmmaker as one to watch.
Deciding to lead a straight life is one thing, but getting permission is another. Su-hyuk’s decade behind bars was in service to his underworld boss, but when he returns he finds the street crew he once knew has changed dramatically. They’ve traded back alleys for the boardroom as the gang has gone legitimate, dubbing themselves The Kaiser Group. The slick new operation now deals in real estate with offices in a gleaming corporate office tower with city skyline views nearing completion. And yet, despite the suits, their greatest negotiation tactic remains violence and when Su-hyuk refuses to return to the fold, everyone reverts to their familiar way of conducting business.
Su-hyuk moves through the world with a weary composure, the camerawork of Go Rak-Sun framing him as a man who not only commands the space in which he stands, but can reshape the room around him with ease. The minimal, percussive score by Kim Tae-seong further establishes Su-hyuk’s self-possessed air, one that holds a tightly wound and experienced savagery beneath the surface. As henchmen and assassins try their deadly methods of persuasion and threaten his loved ones, the cool exterior only flickers for a moment before Su-hyk responds in equally lethal measure.
The film’s action set pieces are where Jung’s instincts as a first time director are most impressive. The picture opens with arguably its most memorable sequence, a blitzkrieg battle in a pitch dark club that finds Su-hyuk dispatching his enemies armed with nothing more than a knife, as beams from his flashlight cut through the darkness. The scene quickly establishes the filmmaker’s preference for clear sight lines and cutting only when necessary, to ensure we stay with everything happening in the frame for as long as possible. The sensibility is not so distant from that of Park Chan-Wook (a sequence later in the film echoes the hallway fight from Oldboy) but also seems to nod to contemporary American action cinema such as John Wick. However, Jung is also willing to get a little more punchy at times, and utilizes a delightfully unhinged, punk rock variant of Bonnie and Clyde-esque villains to try some more vibrant staging.
For his first time out behind camera, the script co-written by Jung Woo-sung alongside Jung Hae-sin keeps all its pleasures on the surface. Su-hyuk’s journey doesn’t uncover any particular insight into the path of redemption or cycles of violence other than the familiar adage that one can’t escape the past. In this regard, Jung Woo-sung has yet to step into the league of colleagues like Park or Bong Joon-ho whose genre efforts are trap doors to bigger concerns. But it’s enough that A Man Of Reason knows its limitations and within them crafts an accomplished debut effort from which to build a richer body of work.
Director: Jung Woo-sung
Screenplay: Jung Hae-sin, Jung Woo-sung
Cast: Jung Woo-sung, Kim Nam-gil, Park Sung-woong, Kim Jun-han, Lee Elijah, Park You-na
Producers: Jung Hyun-joo, Song Dae-chan
Cinematography: Go Rak-sun
Production design: Lee Nae-kyung
Editing: Kim Man-geun
Music: Kim Tae-seong
Sound: Gong Tae-won
Production companies: Studio Take (South Korea)
World sales: Acemaker Movieworks
Venue: Toronto International Film Festival (Special Presentations)
In Korean
103 minutes
