South Korean action thriller, Unstoppable, takes on Liam Neeson’s “Taken” but it doesn’t quite deliver the thrills in a kidnap narrative.
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South Korean action thriller, Unstoppable, takes on Liam Neeson’s “Taken” formula but doesn’t quite deliver the thrills in a kidnap narrative.
Train to Busan’s Don Lee (aka Ma Dong-seok) plays Dong-Chul, a retired legendary gangster known for his punches, who tries to assimilate into a life of an ordinary fisherman with his wife Ji-soo (Song Jihyo). Despite his physical appearance, Dong Chul is a naive husband who gets tricked into making bad business decisions.
His latest business deal comes in the form of selling king crabs. Without prior knowledge about the risks or potentiality of the sale, he takes out a large sum of money to invest in the deal in hopes of striking it rich. One day, he returns home to find his wife missing and through unknown phone calls, he realises that his wife had been kidnapped. Unlike most kidnapping cases where the kidnappers demand their ransom, Dong Chul receives a bag on money instead for ‘selling’ his wife.
When he feels that the police aren’t able to do anything to help his case, Dong Chul decides to take matters in his own hands to find his wife through other means, even if it is through illegal channels. With the help of his best friend Chun-sik (Park Ji-hwan) and a private detective (Kim Min jae), the trio goes on a hunt to bring Ji-soo back.
Lee is pretty much a great fit as the burly, down-to-earth husband who would do anything and everything to make sure his family is safe. When the tone of the film shifts to a more sinister-like gear, it is when we truly see Lee shines. Apart from the fighting scenes, we get to see a more emotional side to his character during the later part of the film. Of course, Lee fighting off bad guys and tossing them around with his impactful punches are, evidently, one of the highlights of the movie as well. Song, on the other hand, doesn’t quite have a character arc like he male co-star - only perhaps a scene towards the end of the film shows her dexterity in the craft where she desperately tries to free herself from the clutches of her captors. It was nice to see that Song also played a ‘big sister’ role to a young lady who was also held captive where they forged a friendship in those tough times.
The two supporting male characters present a nice comic relief to the film who often slip up during the most crucial period. While their antics are funny at times, their clownish behaviours border on the line of distraction, rather than humorous.
The build-up to the kidnap seems a tad long, with a lot of sub-plots about Dong Chul fixing his problem on the shipment of his king crabs. Even up till the point when his wife had been gone for days, the development to the private search still carries on, losing its sense of urgency as times passes. Only when it hits the last pivotal scene, is where things start to get interesting.
On the whole, Unstoppable is a decent crime-thriller with great performances by the cast, but for a film that bills itself as an answer to Hollywood’s ‘Taken’, it doesn’t quite live up to the action-packed fan-favourite hit.
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