The Age of Shadows

After his journey in the United States filming The Last Stand with Arnie, Kim Jee-woon returned to Korea to make another notable blockbuster that he demonstrated how to handle so well in the past. This time it is a period espionage and counterespionage plot, in a sober and serious, almost dry tone. However, fans of the director will be reminded in style and rhythm of The Good, The Bad and The Weird, with which it shares the fantastic protagonist trio, an excellent production design and some very dynamic and spectacular action scenes, a trademark of this director.

This is quite a gripping and tense watch, certainly not one for the particularly squeamish though, it has to be said. It doesn't appear especially violent (moreso than many other action films) in the first half of the film but there are torture related scenes in the 2nd half of it, which I found a bit hard to watch once or twice. Still, its a relatively atmospheric watch, with some good cinematography - I particularly liked the long scene set in a train, which adds a bit of a 'Murder on the Orient Express' feel to it. I thought the plot pace was good - at times its really quite fast paced and I was quite engrossed in it and at others it was more low key and I was left wondering when something might happen, what the next twist in the plot may be. As a spy film, its certainly good. There's a good use of music at times, not very often but when it does feature, it isn't over the top of distracting and the performances are decent too, so I'd recommend it.