By Epock.

The Man From Nowhere tells the story of pawnshop owner Cha Tae-sik and his blossoming friendship with So-mi, the little girl who lives next door. Cha Tae-sik is a mysterious and haunted character forced to face up to his past issues when So-mi and her heroine-addicted mother are kidnapped by an organ-harvesting gang. Think a bloodied, South Korean version of Liam Neeson’s Taken. Cha Tae-sik turns out, of course, to be an ex-Korean government agent and is as such entirely capable of taking on the waring-gangs and confused policemen that stand between him and So-mi.

The main basis for this story, the relationship between Cha Tae-sik and the neglected daughter of his next door neighbour is beautifully conceived. There is nothing sordid or even suggestive in the way the lonely grown man interacts with the little girl, despite her mother screaming over the counter of his pawnshop “stop luring my kid in here, if you touch her I’ll kill you.” Cha Tae-sik and So-mi develop a friendship that is both touching and real whilst also managing to refrain from becoming overly slushy or cheesy. The tender moments between the two are few and far between with their emotional relationship built entirely upon the desperate reliance that they have upon one another.

Cha Tae-sik is a character often seen in action films; the mysterious loner with the violent past who has turned his back on the world and its cruelties. You’ll be unsurprised to learn that Cha Tae-sik has a tragic history of heartbreak to be revealed in the form of a flashback halfway through the film, after an encounter with a vicious assassin who proved to be marginally harder to kill than the other gangster drones. But just because a character is stereotypical does not mean that he cannot still be excellently executed and Korean actor Won Bin does impressive justice to the strong, silent, kick-ass type.

As an action film The Man From Nowhere has it all; it’s complex, fast paced, dangerous and subject to many cunning twists and turns along the way. As with all good action films it culminates in an epic fight and a race against time to save So-mi, with an ending both surprising and sad. The Man From Nowhere will keep you guessing right up until the credits roll. In the final scene the death toll is heavy and throughout the film there is a decent amount of bloodshed. With throat-cutting, drug taking and eyeballs in jars aplenty this is not a film for the faint of heart, but the violence here is at least excusable and serves to plunge the viewer into the sordid world of the gangs through which Cha Tae-sik has to wade.

Released last year and only recently brought over to the west The Man From Nowhere is one of South Korea’s most successful films. Poignant, tragic and more brutal in its violence from good and bad alike than any Hollywood movie this film does its country proud. With hidden depths and sinister corners The Man From Nowhere needs to be watched again and again before every twist and turn can be divulged in full. This is a high quality, spine-tingling action film with a beautiful heart.

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