Commitment Blu-ray Review

 

     Actors: Choi Seung-hyun, Han Ye-ri, Jo Sung-ha

Director: Park Hong-soo

Format: Blu-ray, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen, Dolby, THX

Language: Korean

Subtitles: English

Aspect Ratio: 1.77:1

Rated: Unrated

Studio: Well Go USA

Release Date: March 11, 2014

Run Time: 113 minutes

 

       

        As far as social or political issues are concerned, Commitment really has nothing of significance to say about the constant struggle between North and South Korea, but it does provide some undeniably impressive action sequences with Korean rap/pop superstar Choi Seung-Hyun (aka T.O.P.) heading up the cast. In other words, this is a blockbuster with plenty of entertainment and very little concern for realism or social relevance. Fans of South Korean action films, particularly the popular sub-genre of professional killer crime films recently released, will find this a worthwhile endeavor. 

 

        The film’s basic premise is creative enough to set it apart somewhat, involving a teenager posing as a high school student while moonlighting as a spy and an assassin. When his father does not return from an espionage mission in South Korea, Myung-hoon (Seung-hyun) is forced to become a spy for North Korea in order to protect his sister (Han Ye-ri) from the malevolent Northern forces. In order to get his sister out of the North Korean labor prison camp, Myung-hoon defects to South Korea and enrolls in high school. At night he goes out and kills people in order to get money for the men holding his sister, though never seems to be making any political advances for his country. The politics become muddled and his own side threatens to kill him rather than bring him home.

 

        The secondary storyline of Myung-hoon’s cover as a high school student provides him with the opportunity to meet a bullied classmate named Hye-in (Kim Yoo-jeong), which also gives him an ally when nobody else can be trusted. No spy film would be complete without a double-cross, and Commitment hardly disappoints, but it is paired with the signature South Korean sentimentality in the melodrama. The film simultaneously presents a protagonist with the brutal ability to kill, but also one with the kindhearted convictions of doing it for those he wants to protect.

       

        The Blu-ray release includes a making-of featurette and a trailer.

 

Entertainment Value: 8.5/10

Quality of Filmmaking: 7.5/10

Historical Significance: 7/10

Special Features: 4.5/10

 

 

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