ESCAPE Review: Lee Je-Hoon Battles His Way Though Fascism And Unfriendly Fire In Lee Jong-Pil’s Subversive And Daring New Thriller
Escape opens in theaters on July 5 from Well Go USA Entertainment. The movie will also screen for the 23rd New York Asian Film Festival later this month.
4 min. read
Filmmaker Lee Jong-pil’s new thriller, Escape, doesn’t hesitate before pulling you into its sights. The movie instantly sets its pace surrounding the tenacious efforts of a North Korean soldier’s quest for freedom, intricately planning a dangerous trek to the DMZ just as he nears the end of his mandatory military service.
Gym-nam (Lee Je-hoon) has an elaborate plan, one that requires precision timing and strategy according if he’s to be successful. Having already mapped out a path from his barracks, and into a tunnel beneath the base’s electric fence, as well as a deadly minefield, it’s only a matter of days before he can act and make his way to the DMZ and cross the border safely.
It’s a great plan too, at least until fellow soldier Dong-hyuk (Hong Xa-bin) catches on in hopes of joining Gyu-nam on his trek ahead. To make matters worse, Dong-hyuk takes matters into his own hands in a desperate attempt to defect, only to have himself get caught along with Gyu-nam in the process. The incident alerts State Security officials who send in field officer Hyun-sang (Koo Kyo-hwan) to assess and resolve situation, bringing Gyu-nam in the clear.
The next phase of Gyu-nam’s stalemate in Escape outlines the even more nail-biting tension resultant of Gyu-nam’s current stalemate. It is an exploration of what was once a friendship between two people, one of whom has risen so far in the ranks of the North Korean military that he can do more than simply use his influence to not only get a low-ranking soldier out of a jam. Essentially, Gyu-nam is positioned even closer under the regime’s radar and even further away from his base, leaving uncertain the strategy he already has in place.
The remainder of Escape is a taut race-against-the-clock thriller that chronicles Gyu-nam’s harrowing quest to rescue Dong-hyuk from captivity under the watchful eye of North Korea’s dogged and unforgiving military. He’s forced to re-strategize, forging (literally and figuratively) ahead to use his power and position to act as fast and momentous as possible, knowing full well that it’s only matter of time before Hyun-sang catches on, and for that matter, catches up!
The movie also journeys a little more into our characters’ motivations, notably speaking Hyun-sang’s. His is an unnerving window into the kind of maddening myopia and self-hate that compels him to be as Machiavellian as he is, particularly when it comes to Gyu-nam. When the hunt begins, Hyun-sang is as skilled as he needs to be as soldier whether he’s armed and at the forefront, or advising long distance via radio.
Director Lee’s modifiers here set the stage for Gyu-nam’s and Dong-hyuk’s high-stakes quest toward the South, illustrating exactly how dangerous Hyun-sang really is. As sure as his focus is on the brooding millieu surrounding our protagonist, director Lee reassures viewers with moments that bode equally as fun and ludic to cosign some of the film’s sprinkles of spyfare, specifically in scenes wherein actor Lee’s Gyu-nam is has to improvise his way behind enemy lines.
The most exciting moment of the movie is in the bottom-third where director Lee goes full throttle, as we follow Gyu-nam’s defiant dash through gauntlet of sniper bullets, and a rained-out minefield. The movie also introduces a band of exiled villagers Gyu-nam and Dong-hyuk meet along their way, led by a character played by actress and director Lee’s Samjin Company English Class co-lead, Esom.
Suffice it to say, not everyone in Escape makes it out alive, and at least one plot point feels more open-ended than it should for what would have been a great ornamental story addition to the larger narrative. The good news with Escape, though, is that for a little over ninety-minutes, director Lee proffers one of the leanest, most exciting action thrillers you will ever see. It is a movie loaded with kinetic potency and momentum, lithe cinematography and music, and gripping performances that all culminate the daunting millieu that is the North Korean state’s unforgiving backdrop.
Lee’s Gyu-nam delivers one of the best lines I’ve ever heard in a film of this kind, and he says it during a scuffle with Hyun-sang after stepping on a landmine. It’s one of the most do-or-die moments of Escape, dramatically bookending a brutal, action-packed, and poetically sanguine survival thriller that dares you to succeed, or die trying.
Lead image: Well Go USA
