Screen/Society–Cine-East: East Asian Cinema [S. Korea]–“Assassination”

Film Screening: “Assassination” (CHOI Dong-hoon, 2015, 139 min, South Korea, in Korean w/ English subtitles, Color, Blu-Ray) / “Assassination” was the highest grossing film in 2015 and the eighth all-time highest grossing film in Korean cinema. The film is set during the Japanese occupation of the country in the 1930s, and tells the tale of a team of resistance fighters. A sniper named Ahn Ok-yun, a gun smuggler and graduate of the Independence Military School named Sok-sapo, and explosives specialist Hwang Deok-sam are tasked with the assassination of the governor of Gyeongseong and Kang In-gook, a Korean mogul who is pro-Japanese. However, Yeom Seok-jin, who is supposedly a comrade, seems to have ties with the enemy, and employs two contract killers, Hawaii Pistol and Younggam to deal with the aforementioned. Things become even more complicated when Ahn Ok-yun’s twin sister appears. / “As strands of storyline feverishly tie themselves up through twists and coincidences, the double and triple crosses fade in impact next to the poise of Choi’s all-star cast.” – Edmund Lee, South China Morning Post / “Working off a budget of $16 million, filmmaker Choi Dong-hoon keeps the unapologetically mainstream but twisty story moving along engagingly despite some less-than-seamless shifts in time.” – Michael Rechtshaffen, Los Angeles Times / Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3s_F79s2vyc