The Man Standing Next

Suspenseful but fiendishly complex...

Though touching on a le Carre-like web of loyalties, ambition and hidden agendas, the film is generally less engrossing than that might suggest...

Stylistically, there are echoes of such notable '70s American political thrillers as "Parallax View" and "The Conversation." Even if you're not sure what's going on at any given moment, it is never less than compelling.

Overall, the film's involving period detail and simmering intrigue allow it to stand alongside those classic American political thrillers of the 1970s.

It seems that perhaps the melodrama of a significant political moment in South Koreas history, and thus its attempted epicness, may have ultimately failed the film and its actors.

...a well-told story that has the heft of a John le Carre thriller, and that's a hearty recommendation for any political thriller...

Stylish as it is, this is a film which offers much to admire even to those who don't manage to penetrate beyond the surface.

The Man Standing Next is a brilliant throwback to the old school espionage thrillers.

A top cast deliver excellent performances all-round but it's Lee Byung-hun who really shines.

Woo Min-ho may be painstaking in the way that he reconstructs Korea's past, but the story that he tells is also a parable of power and its abuses that resonates beyond the specificities of the Fourth Republic to any and every era.