Featured Audience Ratings

• JY S

  
  Na Hong-jin's <i>The Yellow Sea</i> is a crafted Korean crime thriller.<p>The 2 hour 15 minute run time is lengthy, especially when the plot details get sketchy. The 4 chapter story does contain some good storytelling, but things can become elusive with a… More
  Na Hong-jin's <i>The Yellow Sea</i> is a crafted Korean crime thriller.<p>The 2 hour 15 minute run time is lengthy, especially when the plot details get sketchy. The 4 chapter story does contain some good storytelling, but things can become elusive with a wealth of characters to focus on. Nonetheless, the plot twists come in at opportune times and the cloudiness of what comes next as the story progresses works in the film's favor.</p><p>Aside from the story, the gritty and realistic violence, full of knives and hatchets, is a pleasant surprise and in high abundance. The destructive vehicle sequences are the icing on the cake.</p><p>Ha Jung-woo is a convincing neutral protagonist. A lot of blood comes at the hands of Kim Yun-seok.</p><p>Once the final scene, which occurs in the closing credits, is over, <i>The Yellow Sea</i> finds itself as a recommendable picture out of Korea.</p>

• Luke B

  
  Na Hong Jin brings us his second feature after the dark and disturbing The Chaser. The Yellow Sea is a complex character piece that sees a man from Yanji City travel to South Korea to kill a man in order to pay off his missing wife's debts. Like The Chaser, this is also a film… More
  Na Hong Jin brings us his second feature after the dark and disturbing The Chaser. The Yellow Sea is a complex character piece that sees a man from Yanji City travel to South Korea to kill a man in order to pay off his missing wife's debts. Like The Chaser, this is also a film that mixes fast paced action and gritty realistic violence. In many ways The Yellow Sea is a lot like a poor man's Bourne, but not in terms of production quality. As Gu Nam travels to Seoul it isn't by plane in a fancy suit, he's herded into a ship in a room with dozens of other people, freezing and sick not everyone makes it. Gu Nam takes his time over the kill and it shows his inexperience. Of course, Gu Nam is really there to search for his missing wife but as things escalate so does the action. Incredible chases on foot and by car elevate this thriller to something that really does thrust a man on the run thriller into the real world. As the film progresses more and more people find themselves involved in the hunt for Gu Nam it's rather humorous to see him quite oblivious to those after him. The Yellow Sea sees the tragic places people from the almost ignored Yanji City find themselves in. Love and dedication are the main themes but are hidden behind an exhilarating wall of delicately crafted action sequences. Brilliant.

• Nicki M

  
  Liked it up to half way through, then felt like a totally different movie, too many characters, couldn't follow it at all. (or maybe it's just it was very late and I was tired...).

• Tsubaki S

  
  Unlike the highly overrated "The Chaser" the story here makes sense, and there's not a bunch of silly coincidences, or clinically stupid cops. There's still some dumb cops, but the movie has a more convincing setting and characters. The problem is that, at some… More
  Unlike the highly overrated "The Chaser" the story here makes sense, and there's not a bunch of silly coincidences, or clinically stupid cops. There's still some dumb cops, but the movie has a more convincing setting and characters. The problem is that, at some point, it becomes a long series of fight and chase sequences, where the protagonist, and the main antagonist, keep getting wounded, stabbed and what not over and over, without any real consequences to their bodies. This turns the movie into a cartoon, and from that point it becomes difficult to take it seriously. Again, just like the chaser, cheap thrills instead of real human drama, or effective characters. With a proper script, Mr Hong-Jin Na he could do something good. We'll have to wait for that day to arrive.

• Alireza M

  
  Yellow sea is one of the best action thrillers I have seen recently.everything is remarkable such as its 3D characters ,bleak atmosphere and memorable action scenes.Unlike I Saw the Devil another Korean action of this year we see an intellectual use of violence in entire film.

• Walter M

  
  In the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture at the intersection of North Korea, China and Russia, many of the citizens resort to illegal activities just to get by. Gu-nam(Ha Jung-woo) works as a cab driver while futilely playing mah jong to try to pay off the 60,000 yuan he borrowed… More
  In the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture at the intersection of North Korea, China and Russia, many of the citizens resort to illegal activities just to get by. Gu-nam(Ha Jung-woo) works as a cab driver while futilely playing mah jong to try to pay off the 60,000 yuan he borrowed for his wife's visa into South Korea. Everybody else, including the two guys who visit him in the night wanting their money back, think that since he has not heard from her, she has obviously left him and is now sleeping around with half of Korea. He holds out hope, thinking that she would not abandon their daughter who his mother cares for. And hope does arrive in the person of Myun(Yun-Seok Kim) who offers to pay off his debts. The only question Gu-nam has is who does he have to kill? There is much to admire in "The Yellow Sea," namely an intriguing setting and the plight of the dispossessed Joseonjok, mixed in with a noir plot of a man in trouble in way over his head, finely executed in a slow burn in the first half. So far, so good. What troubles me about the second half is not the escalating violence which was inevitable. In any case, the foot chases are well handled, especially the first one, and the second one is like a mini-triathlon in and of itself. But there is only one way for them to be resolved, otherwise the movie ends. That's not to mention the plot spinning out of control with major characters suddenly being introduced out of thin air. As time goes on, the movie becomes increasingly less about Gun-am which is a shame because he is sympathetic, not only because he is not the only character getting any sex.

• Sheldon C

  
  Director Na Hong-Jin's sophomore feature, THE YELLOW SEA is a crisp thriller that features excellent cinematography and a distinct style that has been prevalent in both this and his previous film (The Chaser) - a consistent sign of bravura filmmaking and likewise an auspicious… More
  Director Na Hong-Jin's sophomore feature, THE YELLOW SEA is a crisp thriller that features excellent cinematography and a distinct style that has been prevalent in both this and his previous film (The Chaser) - a consistent sign of bravura filmmaking and likewise an auspicious start to a potentially great career. YELLOW SEA takes its time to get rolling but once it does, the ride is brutally violent and daringly unsympathetic - as if we were watching water slowly boil, but where the boiling point lasts ten times as long and swells again wave after wave after wave.

• Daisy M

  
  After enjoying Man from nowhere, I absolutely wanted to see Yellow Sea, another Korean action thriller from the director Hong Jin Na. In Yellow Sea, the characters were so unappealing and unsympathetic, and it showed the hard life of these poor Koreans had to face on the border of… More
  After enjoying Man from nowhere, I absolutely wanted to see Yellow Sea, another Korean action thriller from the director Hong Jin Na. In Yellow Sea, the characters were so unappealing and unsympathetic, and it showed the hard life of these poor Koreans had to face on the border of China, Russia.It was a seriously exciting movie with fast adrenaline action scenes experience that will have you questioning when, if ever, you saw these car chases and butchering skills in a Hollywood movie.( I guess, Never) When another group of hit men became involved, a series of events unfolds that transformed the hunter into the hunted, and that's where I will leave you to experience the plot twists for yourself.The lead character Gu-nam was an unlikely hero, and so were the villains, too, intriguing, with personalities worthy of their status and different enough from each other as to ensure that the audience was kept on tension from the begiining till the end.

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