Review | Film review: Real – South Korean heartthrob Kim Soo-hyun loses himself in interminable action thriller
Blade Runner meets The Matrix meets Cirque du Soleil in overblown, overly long, and nonsensical film that at times looks more like a cheap perfume ad than a high-concept thriller. The director’s first film, it could also be his last
1/5 stars
Ambitious, misguided and altogether lacking in a coherent vision, Real is the first feature film directed by South Korean Lee Sa-rang, credited on-screen as “Love Lee”. Judging by the results here, it could be his last.
The plot revolves around a charismatic gangster (Kim Soo-hyun, from the hit TV series My Love from the Star), whose efforts to launch a luxury casino complex are complicated by rival crime networks and a mysterious doppelgänger. A fiercely addictive new drug is also thrown into the mix, but Real is so muddled and poorly executed that events quickly unspool into baffling nonsense.
From the film’s opening moments, it is obvious that director Lee intends this psychological crime opus to be some kind of mould-breaking masterpiece. However, presumably because nobody could talk him down from such lofty aspirations, Real comes in at an interminable 138 minutes.
