SPEC D: Kim Jee-woon. South Korea. 139 min. Sep 17, 9:30 pm, Princess Of Wales Sep 18, 3 pm, Ryerson. Rating: NNN
The latest from genre-jumping Kim (The Good, The Bad, The Weird, I Saw The Devil, the underrated Arnold Schwarzenegger actioner The Last Stand) is an espionage thriller set in late-20s Japanese-occupied Seoul.
Working for the Japanese, a Korean detective (The Host’s Song Kang-ho) is tasked to capture a key leader of the resistance (Train To Busan’s Gong Yoo). That’s easier said than done, especially since the detective is sympathetic to the resistance movement.
The first act is logy and the finale goes from protracted to exasperating, but a gripping centrepiece sequence on a train from Shanghai to Seoul is a knockout, and Song turns in a moving, multi-layered performance.