[Movie of The Week] A Company Man

All you need to know about this movie are speed and precision. 

Anything else you can just take it off your brains because they are not as important as these two. 

Ji Hyeong-do (SJS) looks like any sharp-suited successful bankers on the CBD of Seoul, but he has an interesting job, you wouldn’t have believed it. He is a HITMAN. Who would have thought this hot hunk commuting on subway every morning or after work hours are not what he is to be. He was a trained assassin, hired to kill and to destroy. Who would have thought really. I have said it before and I will say it again, his character this time is still a muted character, peppered with lines here and there but at any one time, it’s not enough to make one paragraph. Yet again, he exudes charisma through the non verbal. Perhaps, SJS is one actor that can do that effortless because this is his nature, his persona. 

He was set on killing Ra Hoon, played by Kim Dong-Jun after his tasked was carried out successfully. Ra Hoon was thrown down the stairs from a high spot and sustained a broken neck but survived. He didn’t die because Hyeong-do decided to let him live, a mistake that led him to fall in love with Ra Hoon’s mother and his entire worldview, goal and vision for himself changed. He began thinking about quitting, perhaps he was naive to think that he could walk away scot free; that he will not be killed because while he was at his job, he was good, an A-rated hitman. 

Things began to take a turn for the worse when he was tracked down and an attempt to kill him was set. He ran to the man whom he thought would protect him; a mentor, a refuge only to find out that he was to be betrayed by him. 

This is when he was dead set on killing all his bosses and everyone else that comes in his way of stopping him from killing his bosses.

This is when all the action began.

WHY BOTHER WATCHING? 

1. Stunts and actions

SJS delivers yet again with his stunts….I wonder if he did all those fighting scene on his own or whether he used a stuntman. He wore an intense look in his eyes when he was attempting the fighting scenes. His long legs and arms worked to his advantage when he was manoeuvring different fighting moves. 

His stunts here were better than the one he did as a boxer in Always/Only You. 

2. Pace

This movie is surprisingly fast paced but not compromising vital scenes and actions. Though fast paced and kept you on edge most of the time, it didn’t feel hurried like Always. Always left me with a disorientating feeling because it moves to quickly from one scene to the next, feeling as if the directors are trying to pack too many things into that few minutes slot. It’s different with this movie though.

Fast paced but yet unhurried. 

3. Plots are well developed 

This movie has many twists and turns, a breath of fresh air from the usual korean movies or dramas. It has different flavours to it. Yes, it has the dark side of things but at the same time, it is relatable. The moral of the story is everyone is trying to find belonging in this big bad world. Even a hitman has a right to belonging. 

I also like the fact that the heroin casts in this drama is not the typical damsel in distress bimbo. In fact, it’s quite interesting to see SJS romancing a single mother with two teenage kids. Of course having said that, his appeal works for all age groups. Still, it’s unexpected. 

4. A cool office concept

Who would have thought behind the svelte and clean office of a manufacturing company is actually a den for hitmans and killers. And, people always have the assumption (mine included) that these underground kingpins operate from some remote place where there is no inhabitants and no one will find out about them so that they are operate freely.

Dead wrong! This one, it’s in the heart of Seoul, in a commercial building, a nice charade and cover up. It looks as believable as any commercial banks or offices. But, yet behind the glitz is where the actions take place. Nice cover up really. 

You should watch this movie if you are a action movie junkie, otherwise, it’s too much blows (guns and hands), violence and bloods. 

But, if you are a SJS fan but not a action movie fan, try to sit through for his sake. But, make sure, be converted at the end of the movie. 

Give it a go. 

Overall rating: 4/5