The Spy Gone North (2018) – Korean Movie Review

The Spy Gone North – 공작

Directed by: Yoon Jong-bin

Starring: Hwang Jung-min (황정민), Lee Sung-min (이성민), Choi Jin-woong (조진웅), Ju Ji-hoon (주지훈)

The Film: The Spy Gone North was released in Korea on August 8th, 2018 and stars Hwang Jung-min, Lee Sung-min, Choi Jin-woong, and Ju Ji-hoon. Based on a true story set in 1995-97 and leading up to a historic presidential election, a South Korean government spy agency sends an agent to infiltrate the North Korean elite in search of clues surrounding the North’s weapons program. The mission, code named: Black Venus, begins to evolve into something much larger in scale…

Review

Director Yoon Jong-bin, who brought us Beastie Boys (2008), Nameless Gangster: Rules of the Time (2012), and Kundo: Age of the Rampant (2014), delivers another well crafted yet slightly drawn-out film whose real life basis, although quite the scandal, may seem pale in comparison to other films that have attempted to capture Korea’s rocky modern political history (The President’s Last Bang (2005), or the more recent 1987: When the Day Comes (2017)) as well as its economical boom (Gangnam 1970 (2015)) and eventual warp-speed transformation into a first world country. Nonetheless, Yoon’s spy drama The Spy Gone North serves as another satisfactory and eye-opening entry into this building body of films that have attempted to dramatize the already highly dramatic and complex modern history of the Korea we know and love today.

In 1995, a South Korean government spy agency lead by Director Choi (Choi Jin-woong) tasks a well trained spy to infiltrate the highly secretive world of the North Korean elites in hopes of gathering vital intelligence on North Korea’s growing nuclear weapons programs. Under the code name Black Venus, the South’s spy earns favor with the North’s leading overseas financial adviser Rhee Myung-woon (Lee Sung-min) who is tasked directly by North Korean Leader Kim Jong-il to raise money for the regime. By acting under the guise as an ambitious overseas trading entrepreneur and going by the name Mr. Park (Hwang Jung-min), the South’s spy finds himself in prime position to relay intelligence back to his superiors.

When direct knowledge of any weapons programs becomes harder to gather than anticipated, Mr. Park proposes the idea of creating an advertising company that is able to use the unique backdrop of some of North Korea’s both natural and man made structures that are sure to be captivating for international (especially South Korean) audiences. This unprecedented access to these locations would ideally allow for a more thorough gathering of evidence. However, hidden agendas on both sides including the young and aggressive high-ranking military officer Jung Moo-taek (Ju Ji-hoon), who doubts Mr. Park’s credibility at every step, stand in his way of accomplishing his mission.

The Spy Gone North is very much a spy film in the vein of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011) and far from the action extravaganza that is the Mission Impossible franchise. Clocking in at nearly two and half hours, the film is pretty much one extended scene of dialogue after another mixed with random moments of heightened tension when Mr. Park’s identity becomes questioned or nearly foiled. While the film does its job well of setting up the complex circumstances that this real-life spy found himself in, The Spy Gone North demands patience and a strong bladder to reach its best moments.

Hwang Jung-min (The Battleship Island (2017), The Himalayas (2015)) is competent as ever as the lead spy who is tasked with carrying almost every scene on his shoulders. One problem with his performance I had though was since he was undercover as a brash and unwavering businessman, we hardly ever get a sense of his true self except through sparse and often unneeded voice-over narration. Also, his portayal of this business man fell too far on the comedic side at times. Choi Jin-woong (The Handmaiden (2016), Believer (2018)) as the burly director of the spy agency retains a steady if somewhat undynamic presence throughout the film as he delivers orders and various mission updates to his spy. His character feels slightly underused but makes a strong final showing.

Ju Ji-hoon (Asura: The City of Madness (2016), The Treacherous (2015)) playing the younger military officer is the main threat in the film as he makes every effort to make sure Mr. Park is not a spy. While intense, his character is pretty much off the rails and borderline cartoonish at times – but perhaps that might be just the right mix of personality traits needed when filtering out business partners at the highest levels of the North’s dark regime? Lee Sung-min as the top North official tasked with raising revenue for the regime is the real standout in The Spy Gone North. His performance is very controlled and through subtle expression the audience can feel the weight of the responsibility he holds in the North’s regime where power and hierarchy reign supreme. He plays calculated and menacing while also showing a sensitive side that perhaps yearns for a simpler life with his family. Lee’s performance was the biggest surprise of the film and helped give it the dramatic weight it was looking for.

There is a lot of bouncing around from location to location, especially between Beijing and Seoul, but some of the most fascinating scenes in The Spy Gone North come when the South’s spy finally gets into North Korea. The film does an amazing job at recreating the scale and wonder of some of the reclusive nation’s most treasured natural landscapes from Baekdu Mountain to the inner quarters of North Korean Leader Kim Jong-Il’s secluded palaces. With the film set during the mid 90’s, the main characters even stroll through some of the areas hit hardest by the great famine that took place there. Even with these glimpses of North Korean life, we still get the feeling like our gaze is being somewhat manipulated by North Korean security minders which makes every moment more interesting to look at as we fight for every available glance.

The main critique I would give of The Spy Gone North is that one of its key themes of understanding and the ability to humanize the enemy through shared culture and language that arises between the film’s two lead characters has been done a number of times now. Probably best and most famously done in Park Chan-wook’s Joint Security Area (2000), we’ve seen it through the years in other films like Secret Reunion (2010) and even in the buddy-cop blockbuster from last year Confidential Assignment (2016). While on a more subtle level in The Spy Gone North, having some experience with this reoccurring theme in Korean cinema could diminish the overall effect the film is ultimately hoping to have on audiences.

The Spy Gone North might best be described as a slow-moving drama that incorporates spy elements in the retelling of yet another high-stakes political scandal that rocked a relatively recent period of Korean history. Incorporating real newspaper clippings, presidential addresses and other various archived footage, the film really pushes for an emotionally relative response from audience members, especially those that lived through the historic election where the Liberal Party united for their first presidential win in modern Korean history. While mostly successful in this endeavor, the film suffers from pacing issues in its dialogue heavy exchanges that often feel unnecessarily extensive. Those with the patience will be in for a fairly eye-opening and often gripping spy drama. Score: 7/10

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