Director Jeong-beom Lee
Starring Won Bin, Sae-ron Kim, Tae-hoon Kim
Rated MA
Score 5/6

A quiet pawnshop keeper with a violent past takes on a drug-and-organ trafficking ring in hope of saving the child who is his only friend.

I’m pretty sure that I have not come across any movies starring anyone in The man from nowhere before and I only really came across this movie because I was doing a little reading about a genre known as Heroic Bloodshed. For those of you who might interested as a genre ‘Heroic Bloodshed’ was defined as a Hong Kong action film that features a lot of gun play and gangsters rather than kung fu. Protagonists in these films are often good-willed criminals, typically Triad members, hit men, or thieves with a strict code of ethics.

In a recent conversation I was given a hard time about liking action movies with lots of ‘blood & guts’ in them and I have to admit that there are times that I do. The Man from Nowhere is not the type of movie that has its foot pressed down hard on the accelerator pedal (it’s more of a slow burn) it does have the kind of action that will more than satisfy fans of the action genre. In describing this I keep thinking that it tries harder to have a sense of flair rather than to gratuitous. However, The Man from Nowhere builds to an emotional payoff that had me tearing up when it came around in the third act. Fans of Luc Besson’s The Professional should appreciate this movie.
I loved the onscreen relationship between So-mi and Cha Tae-sik (portrayed by Kim Sae-ron and Won Bin) and how So-mi sees him as a surrogate father. Given the opportunity I do hope to check out more of Won Bin’s work.