Deliver Us From Evil review – frenzied hitman thriller is full of cinematic life
There’s a throb of menace driving this gonzo action-thriller from South Korean director Hong Won-chan, who wrote the screenplays for The Yellow Sea and The Chaser. This was a big boxoffice hit on its home turf.
Hwang Jung-min is In-nam, a former cop turned paid assassin who has just whacked a yakuza in Tokyo, and now this dead man’s fanatically violent blood-brother Ray (Lee Jungjae) is out for revenge. To add to this, In-nam hears that his former girlfriend has been killed in Bangkok, following a bungled attempt to make contact with the kidnappers of her nine-yearold daughter – and the child is still alive, in the abductors’ hands. So Innam journeys to Thailand on a desperate redemptive mission to save this little girl, with the scary and bloodthirsty Ray on his trail, and the only person in Bangkok who can help him is Yui (Park Jung-min); Yui is a transgender woman who, for all that she is no mobster, manages at one stage to ram a van with her pickup truck, saving In-nam’s life.
The twin storylines should undermine the film’s pace and focus. They don’t. There are some impressively spectacular shootouts in the streets and a Bourne-level rooftop chase, together with some very crunchy closequarters martial arts. Hwang, his face almost always covered in beads of sweat, is a very persuasive and impassive action hero and Lee is creepy and uproariously over the top. Could he be a Bond villain in the years to come? The 007 franchise could certainly do a lot worse.
Released on digital formats on 4 January.