If you’re looking for a good Korean action thriller, The Yellow Sea just might fit the bill. It’s a bit dated now, coming in from 2010, but once again, if you’re just wanting some good ol’ classic action flick, especially one with a lot of machete-hacking scenes, this is going to feel right at home. Couple that with a good, if somewhat confusing, story as the movie progresses; The Yellow Sea, underneath it all, is all sadness and tragedy at what some people have to do to survive.
I first learned about Yanbian County during another Korean thriller movie, New World. It comprises the largest Korean community outside of Korea. The Koreans here are known as Joseonjok and are looked down upon in South Korea. It’s a very interesting community and highly worth the extra time to look them up. It is here where the story starts in The Yellow Sea with a taxi driver. A taxi driver who specifically owes a lot of money to help his wife get a visa to work in South Korea. A wife who no longer communicates with her husband and is nowhere to be found. One can only presume that she has abandoned her husband to live a better life in South Korea. Down on his luck, our driver accepts an assassination job in Korea and from there, all chaos breaks out.
OK, so the movie is quite enjoyable, but I admit, I quickly got lost as the movie progressed on just why everyone was trying to get the driver resembling a zombie chase at times. 🤣 Yes, that even includes the person who hired him for the assassination job. I think things were just moving so fast that it was hard to catch the little snippets and clues as to why things were happening. I initially understood why the Korean gang boss wanted to catch Gu Nam. Or at least I thought I did. I had initially thought that it was just for revenge, as the professor was a member of their mob and not a lowly rank one at that. However, I then got confused as to why Myun, Gu Nam’s handler, left him to rot in South Korea and then came all the way down to kill him himself. Things made a bit more sense towards the end, but I still had questions. For example, I could piece together what the gang boss said at the end when he mentioned something about her having sex in his own bed. Like what? It had to have been his wife cheating, but with who? The gang boss was a coward throughout the movie, and he only acted tough on the outside. Then in the very end, Gu Nam discovered that the professor’s wife, with the help of her banker friend, was one of the mastermind planners of her own husband’s murder, despite looking innocent throughout. But why? It seems so simple on the surface, yet my brain couldn’t put it together. Then the more troublesome issue was figuring out why Myun wanted Gu Nam dead as well.
Fortunately, Redditors came to the rescue as usual with this awesome explanation.
One thing I disagree with is that I thought it was clear to everyone, with no arguments whatsoever, that the cremated remains he received were not those of his actual wife. It was evident in that one scene that the shoddy investigator Gu Nam sent to the morgue was not able to make a 100% identification as the body was too mutilated. Obviously, he wanted to collect his fee, so he just told Gu Nam that it was a match. There was also a quick scene a couple of minutes after the end credits started to roll that showed Gu Nam’s wife stepping off a train, likely returning home to Gu Nam, although he was already dead at that point. I also personally think, at a point that I didn’t see posted, that is why Gu Nam let the professor’s wife and banker friend go in the end. It was also clear that Gu Nam, in the beginning, had detested his wife for abandoning him after he had risked everything to get her a visa. It was his belief that she ran off with another man (the fish delivery guy). He felt the hot rage that likely engulfed the professor’s wife as well when she discovered he was cheating on her. Gu Nam had grabbed a knife and waited in the fish delivery guy’s home for his wife to return, likely wanting to kill her. So, it could be said that he completely understood what the professor’s wife was going through, and in that moment, all he could probably feel was just pity for everything and everyone.
Look-alike actors spotted! Korean star actor Ha Jung Woo next to Hong Kong’s Raymond Lam, actor and singer.
The Yellow Sea is a sad and tragic movie all around. Gu Nam’s young baby daughter will grow up without a father and likely never knowing what happened to him. His body being dumped unceremoniously in the sea along with what he thought was his wife’s cremated remains topped off this great movie.
Thank you to Reddit u/KoreanFilmAddict for recommending this movie!
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