Unstoppable (2018)

aka Raging Bull

Original title: 성난황소

Once, Kang Dong-cheol (Ma Dong-seok) was a rather successful gang boss known for his very effective fists (which nearly become like unto a thing of iron). But marrying civilian Ji-soo (Song Ji-hyo) – described as “an angel” but clearly the kind of angel who does carry a flaming sword and a pretty sharp tongue too – convinced him to retire. Now, he’s in the fish wholesale business, and overcompensates for his past by acting so meekly, he’s letting himself being pushed around by idiots he’d have (deservedly) wrecked as his old self. Much to Ji-soo’s pained disapproval, Dong-cheol has also become a bit of a glutton for putting money he doesn’t really have into shady projects that’ll never pay off.

The peaceful life ends when a series of chance happenings points Gi-tae (Kim Sung-oh), the psychopathic leader of a human trafficking (and illegal plastic surgery) ring, in the direction of Ji-soo. When he and his gang kidnap her, Dong-cheol has to get back to some of his old form and manner to rescue her; while Gi-tae should probably look for a better rock to hide under.

Obviously, Kim Min-ho’s Unstoppable is a movie built on some of the rules of the Taken-alike. For my tastes, it’s a particular good example of that action thriller sub-genre that makes efforts to get rid of some its problems and seems generally less mean-spirited as many of the (often highly entertaining, don’t get me wrong) films in which Liam Neeson punches foreigners with his gigantic former CIA fists.

There is, for one, very little punching of foreigners, South Korean villains being well and good enough for our hero, or rather, his fists. There’s also comparatively little torture on screen, most of it ending up with threats and bad jokes, the film believably working on the assumption that Ma punching you and giving you a patented dead eyed stare should really be just as effective.

The film also does its best to get rid of some of the dramatically lame conventions of its sub-genre. So we actually get introduced to Ji-soo as a character before she’s kidnapped, turning her into a lot more than a quest object in the process; and later on, she actually gets her own sub-plot in which she tries to escape her kidnappers in some of the best suspense sequences in the film, at once making the stakes more emotionally involving for the audience (did anyone ever care for Liam’s “Little Girl” as a person?), and giving Ji-soo as a character room to breath.

The three leads are doing a pretty great job: Ma, as mentioned, has the whole business about becoming a force of (punching) nature while staring at you threateningly down pat, but he’s also believably vulnerable when he needs to be, selling the goofy meek guy who falls for stupid plans just as well as the tougher self. Song’s note-perfect as his sometimes beleaguered, sometimes charmed wife, getting to nag without becoming the “nagging wife” trope, and showing a lot of strength and guts when the situation calls for it, making the question why a tough alpha type gangster would want to give up his old life and personality for love more or less a no-brainer and selling her as an actual person who is going to do something to save herself too.

Last but not least, Kim Sung-oh’s performance as the crazy kidnapper boss is fantastically overacted in the best manner, completely vile, sometimes in a funny way, always genuinely punchable and sometimes just as genuinely frightening. It’s pretty much how you’d imagine the Joker to be without make-up (and if DC ever wanted to cast anyone but a white guy in the role, they have the perfect candidate right here). The actor sells Gi-tae as an actual threat, too, and very much as the guy you’d most want to see get punched out by Ma. In fact, waiting for the guy getting to get his lights punched out is one of the great joys of the film at hand.

Tonally, the film’s very typical of South Korean action and thriller cinema, with a lot of comedy elements involved but staged so that the humour never gets in the way of the serious business, but actually grounds it as comic relief is supposed to do but nearly never does. Given Kim Min-ho’s general hand with action and suspense sequences in Unstoppable, it’s probably a good thing too.