NYAFF XXIV Review: In COMMITMENT, T.O.P. Shines As A Spy In An Historical Turning Point
Park Hong-soo’s 2013 spy thriller, Commitment, arrived to the states during my first year as an indie film journo on this platform. I did the usual trailer bits but never got to give it the proper review coverage, which otherwise makes its re-circulation into this year’s 24th edition of the New York Asian Film Festival all the more inviting.
Park’s one and only film directing gig here brings into focus the travails of Myung-hoon (T.O.P.), a teenager thrust into internment along with his sister at a North Korean forced labor camp following the fatal capture of his father – also a spy. He’s offered a chance at freedom along with his sister: to train as a government assassin and pick up where his father left of, while placed as the ward of a sleeper cell family under the alias of high school student, “Dae-ho”.
He befriends Hye-in (Han Ye-ri), a classmate who happens to share the same name as his sister, and who is also subject to daily bullying by their peers. Meanwhile, there’s a covert war between factions working for the North, creating a power vacuum soon amplified by Kim Jong-il’s death, and pressuring local law enforcement to act. In a duplicitous move by his handlers, Myung-hoon is exposed, as is the rest of his unit, forcing him on the run in a high-stakes battle to save his sister, and the only friend he’s ever made.
No stranger to film and TV during his BIGBANG heyday, T.O.P. is in top form for the role of Myung-hoon. The performances are fantastic and the synergy and subliminal messaging between the characters played by He-ri and actress Kim You-jung as T.O.P.’s on-screen sister, translates as well as you would expect from a story profiling two Koreans as human and not just from either side of the DMZ.
The film’s “Bourne style” approach doesn’t stray too much into Greengrass territory when it comes to the action. You can see most of Kim Sang-hun’s action choreography and the camerawork doesn’t really bite the eyes, any. There’s even a few scrimmages I’d take away from it as well, including the fight in the gym showcasing Myung-hoon’s first major scuffle in the film as he hunts down his target, and a fight scene in a small storage room which I thought was impressive.
I did feel some of the writing for Myung-hoon felt a little perfunctory by the final act. You get his struggle as a young man traumatized as a man suddenly without a country, but the direction here veers a little off course considering the circumstances. Chalk it up as a human moment, I suppose.
At any rate, twelve years since then, I’d say Commitment has aged pretty well, and is rightly welcome for anyone keen on Korean action in the last quarter-century. To this, I can only wonder what’s kept Park from the feature film directors’ chair for this long. As for T.O.P., last I saw he did a film called Out Of Control which, as far as I know, never had a decent release around these parts. With FAST platforms winning the streaming wars of late though, perhaps this will change.
Commitment was co-presented with the Korean Cultural Center New York for its Special Screening at the 24th edition of the New York Asian Film Festival. The film is currently available in the U.S. from Well Go USA.
Native New Yorker. Been writing for a long time now, and I enjoy what I do. Be nice to me!
