Review | The Childe movie review: Korean crime thriller, starring Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha’s Kim Seon-ho as an assassin, is slick but not especially remarkable
- Kim Seon-ho truly shines as a nameless, well-groomed assassin in Korean crime thriller The Childe – a story about Kang Tae-ju’s half-Korean, half-Filipino boxer
- Kang’s Marco, upon travelling to Seoul to meet his father, finds himself at the centre of a struggle to control one of Korea’s most powerful conglomerates
3/5 stars
Injecting his well-groomed assassin with a refreshing dose of self-effacing irreverence, Kim all but eclipses the film’s nominal star, Kang Tae-ju, whose half-Korean, half-Filipino boxer finds himself at the centre of a bitter struggle to control one of Korea’s most powerful chaebol, or family-run conglomerates.
Resembling a younger and better looking Choi Min-sik, Kim brings genuine humour and personality to his dapper hit man, transforming an overused genre staple into the film’s most memorable and sympathetic character.
Kang’s character Marco earns a meagre living in the Philippines while caring for his bedridden mother. Out of the blue, a delegation from South Korea arrives, revealing that the father he has never known is chairman of a powerful business empire – and has summoned him to Seoul.
No sooner does he land than Marco learn that his ruthless half-brother Han (Kim Kang-woo) wants to use Marco as an organ donor to save his father’s life and secure his inheritance. But there are other interested parties, including Han’s other siblings, the mysterious Yoon-ju (Go Ara), and Kim’s enigmatic mercenary.