Guns & Talks
Third Window Films
R2 DVD
Korean
with English subtitles
This
unusual film from director Jang Jin is a little different from the usual run of
Korean gangster films. Our heroes, if that’s the right word, are a group of
four assassins for hire. Their speciality is killing their victim in whatever
way the client wants, from a straight hit to a more public execution. They are
helped by Uncle Joo, an expert in making the special
gadgets they need and supplying all sorts of illegal weaponry.
Things
go wrong when they are hired to kill a young pregnant woman. The client, the
woman’s husband, forgot to tell them she was pregnant and Sang-Yun, the gunman
allocated the job takes pity on her then falls in love with her.
An
intelligent and cunning police officer, Detective Cho, is also on their tail
using clues from a previous hit on one of his informants. Gradually the police
are closing in. Officer Cho is following them and visits the young woman to
warn her she is in danger. She asks him to warn off her husband. Both Cho and
Sang-Yun approach the husband one day. Sang-Yun apologises for not completing
the job. When the husband calls him incompetent he beats the husband up and
tells him to leave the woman alone. Shortly after this, Cho finds the husband
and also warns him off. Then beats him up as well.
Another
of the gunmen has fallen in love with a schoolgirl who wants them to kill her
English teacher, who has got her pregnant.
The group is starting to develop internal tensions but their most
important job is yet to come. They must assassinate a leading actor in a stage
performance of Hamlet with thousands of people watching.
Detective
Cho is also having trouble with one of the local crime lords. He wants the man
dead, but policemen just don’t do that sort of thing so he works out a way of
tricking the assassins into doing it for him.
It
is an intelligent film although rather brutal. There are enough flashes of
humour to keep it from getting too dark, and enough action to keep it moving.
Extras
are the usual “Making of”, a Bon Jovi music video and the usual trailers.
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