Directed by: Kim Ji-woon (김지운)
Starring: Gang Dong-won (강동원), Han Hyo-joo (한효주), Jung Woo-sung (정우성), Kim Moo-yeol (김무열), Choi Min-ho (최민호)
The Film: The year is a chaotic 2029 in which the announcement of a five year reunification plan by the North and South Korean governments has resulted in an economic sanction by the great powers, worsening the people’s livelihood and leading to hellish times.
A new “Special Forces Unit” under the direct control of the president is established to suppress the emergence of a militarized anti-reunification terrorist group known as “Sect” and now dominates the initiatives of the political landscape. The intelligence group, “Public Security Division”, whose political foothold has diminished as a result, conspires to wipe out the entire “Special Unit”. In the midst of this bloodstained strife between two ultimate authorities, rumors of a covert group known as “Illang” within the “Special Unit” begin to circulate…These human weapons are known as wolves, “Illang.”
Creating an adaptation of a preexisting work is an inherently difficult process. If the film is too faithful to the source material, it risks being labeled as an uninspired regurgitation; if the film takes too many liberties, it risks alienating an established fanbase. More often than not, it’s a lose-lose scenario, but this is the unfortunate yet unavoidable scrutiny that film adaptations tend to fall under. It is a tricky balancing act between creating something that expresses a breadth of originality while attempting to maintain the intent and core concepts of a beloved work. Great adaptations will find a sweet spot somewhere in the middle of these two ends of the spectrum.
Unfortunately, Illang fails in both respects.
Illang: The Wolf Brigade, director Kim Jee Woon’s ninth feature film, is a live-action film adaptation of the acclaimed Japanese manga saga, Kerboros Panzer Cop and 1999 animation, Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade, both written by Mamoru Oshii. Illang somehow manages to both miss the mark in preserving the spirit of the original source material and fail as a well-constructed, standalone film of any significance, and the end result is an excruciatingly painful exercise in mediocrity.
As a full disclaimer, I’d like to note that I am a huge fan of director Kim Jee Woon and his previous films. A Bittersweet Life (2005) was a landmark in the Korean neo-noir genre while I Saw the Devil (2010) was a morbidly twisted interpretation of a done-to-death revenge narrative. The man’s resume speaks for itself and most of his films (The Last Stand not withstanding) exude his unique sense of visual flair and cinematic dexterity. Admittedly though, I had been a bit disappointed by his last directorial effort, 2016’s The Age of Shadows a.k.a. Mil-Jeong. While not a terrible movie by any means, I found it to be noticeably bland and vanilla when compared to his past gems. Coupled with my usual trepidations when it comes to film adaptations, I went into Illang with tempered expectations, but I still wanted to give it a fair trial. I had even decided against re-watching the original Anime film in order to detach myself from the source material and purely judge this movie on its own merits. Alas, all of my worst fears were realized as I began to witness the banality unfold on screen. Kim Jee Woon’s usual cinematic fingerprints are nowhere to be found in this film and it is almost as if he doubled down on everything that I disliked about The Age of Shadows and the resulting product is a watered-down, canned soup version of the original Jin-Roh.
This film takes the original and recontextualizes it into a Korean setting and a different time period. While the original Jin-Roh takes place in a 1950s, alternate history in which Japan has been conquered by Germany, Illang takes place in the dystopian future of 2029 in which South and North Korea are on the verge of reunification. The basic premise within this setting is as follows: actor Gang Dong-Won plays Joong-Kyeong, a member of the Wolf Brigade, a secret kill squad that operates within a government-sanctioned Special Forces unit that was launched to counteract an anti-reunification terrorist group known as “The Sect.” The fallout from collateral damage stemming from the Wolf Brigade’s activities has led to civil unrest and an increase in public outcry for the disbandment of the Special Forces division. An incident in the opening act of the film, during which Joong-Kyeong is unable to stop the suicide bombing of a young female Sect member, adds further fuel to the fire.
Joong-Kyeong wrestles with the trauma of what he witnessed as he prepares to make contact with the young girl’s older sister Yoon-Hee (portrayed by Han Hyo-Joo). Meanwhile, the Special Forces’ rival government organization, the Public Security Department conspire to discredit and dismantle the Special Forces unit and establish their dominance in the political sphere by taking advantage of this instability. It all comes across as overly convoluted and the film further complicates things for itself with its execution even though, ironically enough, the actual core plot is not as complex as it tries to make it seem. Furthermore, the film fails to adequately establish its own lore by opting to use heavy exposition, lazily edited voice-over narrations, and randomly inserted animated cut-scenes as opposed to proper storytelling.
Director Kim Jee-Woon describes his film as a Sci-Fi action thriller. If that is the case, I must have missed something because those supposed Sci-Fi elements are not readily apparent nor are they sufficiently expressed through the film’s visuals. For a movie that takes place in a strife-ridden dystopian future, the entire look of the film is bewildering dull. Besides the look of the Wolf Brigade’s armored suits (which, to the film’s credit, are an accurate representation of the Anime), everything else appears to be a modern-day Korea with barely any visual cues that illustrate a dark, futuristic setting. Even those armored suits are entirely too clean and plastic-like in appearance to appropriately convey a morose and gritty atmosphere. The world within this movie is simply too empty and uninhabited to properly give a sense of feeling lived-in.
There is only one suitable word to describe the action displayed in Illang: generic. The action sequences, while well choreographed for the most part, are instantly forgettable which is befuddling since this movie was directed by someone who was previously lauded for his inspired action set pieces. Some of these action segments are also way too bloated and drawn out and simply became a chore to sit through towards the end of the film. It’s just a jumbled collage of characters punching, kicking, flipping, and shooting that amounts to nothing more than visual noise. This lack of substance beneath the action is also indicative of a much larger problem: the characters.
As I mentioned earlier, Illang drops the ball when it comes to properly establishing its own world and lore. This problem is even more egregious in the film’s development of its characters. Motivations are either entirely too vague or only briefly touched on which makes it almost impossible to care about anything that is happening to these characters on screen. The audience needs to be given a reason to care in order for them to feel any modicum or iota of emotion when a character is punched or shot; we need to have a connection in order to wince in pain along with our protagonists. For a story that tries so hard to get an emotional response, the lack of character depth is astonishing.
Of course, the characters are only as good as the actors that portray them. The acting in Illang is suspect to say the least. Perhaps the actors did the best with what they were given in terms of a script but for a film that is touting so many A-list Korean actors, there is an overabundance of wooden performances and stilted delivery. Gang Dong-Won doesn’t have much dialogue to begin with so there’s just a whole lot of staring intensely on his part while Han Hyo-Joo doesn’t fare much better with her overly dramatic line delivery. Jung Woo-Sung, who plays the chief training officer of the Wolf Brigade, doesn’t have a big enough role to make any kind of lasting impact. The only bright spot that is worth mentioning is Kim Mu-Yeol who plays a high ranked officer within the Public Security Department and serves as the film’s main antagonist. Kim Mu-Yeol portrays the character with the appropriate amount of zeal to make him unlikable enough to truly stand out amongst a bevy of cookie-cutter character archetypes.
With all that being said, the biggest reason that this film does not work in any capacity is that it has no idea what it wants to be. Illang tries to carry itself as a political-conspiracy action thriller yet plays out like a cringe-inducing romantic melodrama. This would be acceptable to some extent had the romance elements been properly executed and fleshed out, but the film fails in that regard as well. The romantic subplot in this movie is simply laughable and there is not a single moment that convincingly illustrates the supposed chemistry between the two leads. There is one particular kiss scene that had me rolling my eyes in disbelief as I bore witness to this film’s eventual unravelling.
So, if it doesn’t work as a film by itself, does it, at the very least, work as an adaptation?
The answer is a resounding no.
For those who are unfamiliar with the original Jin-Roh, the story is supposed to serve as a dark allegory to the Little Red Riding Hood fairy tale. Although this adaptation attempts to depict those same parallels (with visual references that are so on-the-nose that it simply comes off as obnoxious and pandering) Illang ultimately fails in maintaining any semblance of the original’s metaphorical intent due to the narrative changes (one change in particular, fundamentally effects the core connotations of the original story) made by director Kim Jee-Woon. Taking liberties with the source material is not a problem so long as those changes make narrative sense within the context of an adaptation’s specific version of the story. This movie, however, not only dilutes the integrity of the original’s message but ultimately negates the significance of its own subtext and themes. My biggest fear going into this movie was that the film would shy away from the brooding, depressing tone of the original in order to appeal to a mainstream audience and that concern was not unfounded. Hence, I am left questioning the validity the director’s decision to adapt Jin-Roh in the first place.
Before this review turns into more of a hate-filled rant than it already has, allow me to conclude my thoughts with this: this movie cannot justify its own existence. Illang is an unfortunate yet noticeable blemish on what used to be Kim Jee Woon’s pristine filmography. As the person responsible for this project’s overall vision (he also received co-writing credits for the screenplay), it is hard to comprehend the approach that he decided to take in creating this adaptation. Perhaps his visionary reach exceeded his grasp; perhaps he was a victim of studio interference; maybe he lacked directional focus, or maybe he simply failed to understand what made the original tick. Either way, the final product is a woeful epitome of a missed opportunity. Even without placing it under the lens of the “adaptation microscope,” Illang simply does not work as a movie in any respect. This film holds no value for a casual audience nor will it appease the rabid devotees of the original Jin-Roh. This particular dog (or wolf in this case, I suppose) has no bark or bite. It’s just a colossal waste of time and a huge misstep by Kim Jee-Woon. Here’s to hoping that he’ll be able to right the ship with his next project.
On a side note, according to recent reports, Netflix has picked up the rights to distribute Illang via its streaming platform in all other international territories. I guess Netflix will have another dud to add to their ever-expanding list of critically-maligned, exclusive feature films. SCORE: 4.5/10
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