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Double Agent review
:. Director: Hyeon-jeong Kim
:. Starring: Suk-kyu Han, So-young Ko
:. Running Time: 1:56
:. Year: 2003
:. Country: South Korea
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For the last few years, South Korea has emerged as an unlikely rich source of cinema, successfully turning genre films into highly aesthetic pieces where characters have a soul. Shiri and Tell Me Something—both starring Han Suk-kyu—are representative of this trend and have opened a door for South Korean films to reach international markets.
Double Agent examines the inside work and psychological struggle of double agent Lim (Han Suk-kyu) who infiltrates the South Korean secret services. The film advances slowly, studying its main character instead of going for a showcase of action. The movie features some very brutal torture scenes, but what interests the filmmaker is to show how Lim, an anti-hero and traitor par excellence, deals with the friendship and loving connections he made in the course of his mission and how strong his commitment to his duty is.
While Double Agent focuses on psychology and narrative, the film is stripped from the highly visual approach that we have become accustomed to with most South Korean exports. This is nothing else other than an adaptation of Cold War films in a Korean setting, and the absence of visual artistry results in a lack of singularity and identity. Double Agent transposes a genre but doesn't transcend it, unlike Shiri and Tell me Something. Kim Hyun-jung's directing approach is academic and riskless, feeding on dozens of 70's movies, and even though he manages to create some beautiful moments—a slow and lyrical final sequence shot in wide angle—he never brings anything new to the table, thus prompting our minds to compare his work to classics of the genre such as Scorpio and wander through cinematic memories in which we finally get lost.
Fred Thom
 Movie Reviews: from 1998 to 2011
Movie Reviews since 2012
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