If you are like me, you had no idea that this was going to drop on Netflix this past Friday in the most unceremonious way possible. It’s strange given the clout of South Korean filmmaker, Kim Jee-woon, who has made many great movies like A Tale of Two Sisters, I Saw The Devil, The Last Stand, The Age of Shadows, and The Good, the Bad, the Weird. His latest is a live-action adaptation of the acclaimed and influential 1999 anime, Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade, which itself was an adaptation of the manga, Kerberos Panzer Cop. I haven’t seen/read either, so don’t get mad if I don’t mention any changes made.
The one change I can talk briefly about is the fact that instead of taking place in an alternate 1950s Japan, which has been conquered by Germany, this version of the story takes place in the not-too-distant future where a reunification between North and South Korea is being set in place, but sanctions brought by various nations who don’t approve the plan have placed the nation in economic distress, leading to unrest among the people.
With this backdrop, we meet Im Joong-Kyun (Gang Dong-won), a member of the government’s elite Special Unit, who is haunted by the death of a girl, who blew herself up during one of his missions. He later meets Lee Yun-hee (Han Hyo-joo), who is the older sister of the girl who died, and he quickly falls down a rabbit hole of government conspiracies.
Again, having not seen the anime or read the manga that this is based on, there’s not much I can say about how it does or does not work as an adaptation, and chances are, any nuances made with placing the story in South Korea instead of Japan probably all went over my head. However, as a sci-fi almost-but-not-really-dystopian action film, it’s a remarkably solid piece of work.
The first thing that struck me was – naturally – Kim’s filmmaking. He’s always been a stylish director, but it’s always in service to the story and the particular energy he wants to bring. The film opens with an epic scope as it paints this vision of a future with the reunification and how it affects the government and the people. And unlike other similar films, which are often grim and desaturated, Illang is vibrant and colorful. It really struck me the most during a sequence early on when the Special Unit are tracking down members of a terrorist group in the sewers, and it’s like one of those big sewers with huge tunnels and such. It had a lot of color, great use of shadows, reflections of light with the water, and it was just gorgeous to look at. Sewers!
The whole film looks fantastic. Kim is working with cinematographer, Lee Mo-Gae, who he has collaborated with before. They shoot the film in a way that really allows you to absorb the world and the production design and costumes. They clearly had quite a budget, and they want to show it off. I don’t blame them. And of course, when the action kicks into gear, it hits hard, but it’s presented with clarity and propulsiveness. The film isn’t wall-to-wall action, it does make you wait, but once they come, it’s intense and incredibly satisfying. Plus, the score from Mowg is killer.
The performances are really solid. Gang is very much a man of few words, but he manages to say a lot with mere glances and looks, and the filmmaking goes out of its way to make sure his perspective is made clear. The only other actors that made a really big impression are Jung Woo-Sung, and my favorite, Kim Moo-Yul, who is essentially the antagonistic force here; he gets to be very smug and smarmy and easy to despise.
The film is interesting in how it’s constructed because – as I mentioned – it starts off with this grand scope, yet as it goes along, it scales down to something far more intimate and emotionally driven. Because of that, the plotting can come across as bit convoluted. There were a couple points where I felt like I missed something, and I wasn’t sure if this person was associated with that person, or if they betrayed that person, or if they knew this crucial info about another person, and whatnot. However, once I felt cued in on the more personal stakes of the film, it allowed me to ride that line, following Im’s personal journey of experiencing trauma and love, which made the ending rather cathartic.
I don’t think I’d call Illang: The Wolf Brigade one of Kim Jee-woon’s best films, there are others I’d watch or recommend over this, but it’s still an evocative, well crafted, and beautiful piece of filmmaking. It takes a story of government corruption, conspiracy, propaganda, and slowly comes into focus as a more intimate and understated character piece that builds to a gut punch of a finale that doesn’t feel the least bit embarrassed to be melodramatic. It is a skosh overlong and convoluted, but they never got in the way of me having a really good time, especially with filmmaking this good. It’s not essential viewing, but there’s certainly a lot to admire.