Film review: action keeps The Suspect on the straight and narrow

THE SUSPECT
Starring: Gong Yoo, Park Hee-soon, Yoo Da-in
Director: Won Shin-yun
Category: IIB (Korean)

With a running time of 137 minutes, Wong Shin-yun's The Suspect is considerably lengthier than the average action-thriller. Not coincidentally, it also has a far more complex plot than can be expected of a film whose powerfully built protagonist is more likely to spring into action than sit back and chat.

In the not-so-distant past, Ji Dong-chul (the impressive Gong Yoo in his first action role) was North Korea's best special ops field agent and a happily married father-to-be. But when Kim Jong-un came to power, his government decided that the top operative was better off dead than alive. Ji was left with little choice but to join the 20,000 or so of his countrymen who have defected to date.

Ji now leads a low-key life for the most part. But after the pro-North Korean corporation head (Song Jae-ho) who employed Ji as his driver is murdered, the defector becomes the prime suspect. Super "spy sniffer" Colonel Min (Park Hee-soon) is tasked with tracking the trained killer down. The South Korean military man soon realises that there's much more to the case than initially meets the eye.

Among other things, the man he's pursuing has more on his mind than trying to prove his innocence. Also, it's not just a straight North versus South affair. Instead, monetary greed and personal revenge are also fuelling different people's violent actions.

Screenwriter Lim Sang-yoon's story does not lack twists, turns or sub-plots. It also has some interesting supporting characters, including Colonel Min's amusing, gum-chewing assistant, Captain Jo (Jo Jae-yun) and Choi Kyeong-hee (Yoo Da-in) as a documentary filmmaker whose research on North Korean defectors leads the good guys to make a number of key revelations.