The Suspect

This was Gong Yoo's first action film and a showcase for where Korean genre production stood technically at the time. He plays Ji Dong-cheol, a formerly high-ranking North Korean agent who defected, now living in the South as an ordinary driver while hunting the man who killed his family. When he is accused of a businessman's murder, both the intelligence service and his old organisation come after him. Won Shin-yun's approach is handheld and almost continuously in motion. The chases, particularly the car sequences through Seoul, were built with minimal digital assistance. The weakness is a script that stacks betrayal on betrayal and then has to untie too many knots in the last half hour. It opened on 24 December 2013 and took roughly twenty-seven million dollars against a budget of nine and a half million. Who it is for: viewers who enjoy Korean action thrillers and physically punishing chases. Who it is not for: anyone wanting a politically balanced treatment of North Korea, or a simpler plot.