High-octane thrills for fugitive Gong Yoo in The Suspect

43 December 1, 2013December 1, 2013

High-octane thrills for fugitive Gong Yoo in The Suspect

by girlfriday

Sure, it’s a pretty timeworn formula to make your blockbuster action movie about a super spy who’s been left to fend for himself in a strange land, but hell, I’ve seen the Bourne trilogy more times than I can count, so it’s not like I’d say no to slick, pulse-pounding thrills. Plus, Gong Yoo. His new movie The Suspect has released posters and an official trailer as it gears up for a December premiere, and it looks like all the crazy stunt work pays off. He looks BADASS.

The new action thriller from director Won Shin-yeon (Seven Days) stars Gong Yoo as an elite North Korean agent who gets abandoned by his country and loses his wife and daughter on top of it all. He ends up in South Korea, keeping his head down with a job as a designated driver, when one day he ends up framed for murder and on the run. But what begins as a fugitive’s run from the law becomes a hunt for the person who killed his wife and child.

The trailer opens with his life as a spy gone wrong, as he narrates: “I am Ji Dong-chul. I am an agent of the special forces. I am currently being chased. No… I am chasing someone.” As the fugitive becomes the revenge-seeker, he closes in on the killer all while trying to evade the authorities, led by spare-no-tears “hunting dog” captain Park Hee-soon (All About My Romance). He swears he’ll be the one to capture the suspect, while Ji Dong-chul vows, “I will kill everyone involved.”

Co-starring are Jo Sung-ha (King’s Family) and Yoo Da-in (Delicious Life). And yes, that is totally Answer Me 1994’s Kim Sung-kyun, aka Samcheonpo, you see in the stills. Oddly enough, it’s how he usually looks in movies, though now it’s mind-boggling after seeing him be so sweet on TV.

The Suspect hits theaters Christmas Eve.

Via Hankyung

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Tags: Gong Yoo, Park Hee-soon

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1 disfigurine

December 1, 2013 at 8:06 PM

Two words for Gong Yoo: F*cking Hot *-*

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Noelle

December 1, 2013 at 10:05 PM

you and i are of one mind lol

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sumee

December 2, 2013 at 3:30 AM

Me 2

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2 ilikemangos

December 1, 2013 at 8:09 PM

I'm a sucker for slick action sequences so i'm probably going to watch this movie.
Gong yoo's hotness is a bonus.

Still gotta remind myself that kim sung kyun is just playing characters -- to see him go from gangster to serial killer to dorky samcheonpo is an amazing transformation.

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3 Orion

December 1, 2013 at 8:20 PM

I am looking forward to this, but I also think Korean movies end up horribly boring when they try to be too much like Hollywood, so I hope this one is not going for that. I like my Koreanness in Korean cinema. I don't need a movie to be a series of action scenes without a decent plot behind them.

I have been disappointed by many "box office hits" in Korea. I barely made it to the middle of 'Berlin File', 'The Thieves' was painful every minute and this is just a fration, so I don't have much trust in hype.

I hope what lies under the action can use it wisely and that the action elevates that plot, not attempts to replace it or hide the lack of it.

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windsun33

December 1, 2013 at 9:02 PM

Yeah, they simply don't have the budgets that Hollywood movies do, and a lot of the stuff ends up looking pretty fake.

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Orion

December 2, 2013 at 4:42 AM

Not in that sense. They think action scenes and characters cracking jokes at each other or looking cool is all it takes to be Hollywood and do that. But it just takes away anything interesting. If you perceive of an entertainment as shallow and then try to mimic that lack of substance for success, you'll get something even worse, painted by what you think that entertainment is all about.

If your characters' sole mission is to look cool or do cool things, but they lack anything human, anything outside the tropes that guide them, you simply fail.

And I think some Korean films which are considered box office hits and sell well abroad forget that. That when you give up what you are good at and do your best to pull brainless off, you get brainless that is not even fun, because it's not coming from genuine desire to create fun, just one to craft what you think will sell. And sadly, it does sell, so I worry for the future sometimes.

I'll trust this movie for now, but I'm seeing way too big a scale in the action department (plus the focus on gadgets and topless scenes and such) to have faith that some attention was also paid to the story. I hope 'The Suspect' proves me wrong, because it does look pricey, hard to make and has a good cast.

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Lord Byron

December 2, 2013 at 7:30 AM

Dear Orion:

You've said it all. Beautifully.

So, I will just make your point by providing examples from 2013 alone: Star Trek - Into the Darkness & Hunger Game - Catching Fire. Really, no one else can fake this kind of stuff. A copy of a copy simply won't do for me.

By the way, as the Hunger Game franchise illustrates, there is a new role model (or mythical figure) being created. And this one is a girl. She is so our generation.

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Quiet Thought

December 2, 2013 at 5:09 PM

Well put, Orion. My favorite action movie in recent years is still 'The Bourne Supremacy.' They take the cheap shot of casually snuffing the hero's love interest in the first scene just to get her out of the way of the plot. However, he doesn't forget her or what she was trying to do, which was to teach him to be human again. And, in the end, he walks, exhausted, away from what would have been the cheap revenge climax, to do the one small thing he can do to make all the violence worthwhile: to tell a young woman that her parents did not abandon her by committing suicide.

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Lord Byron

December 2, 2013 at 7:19 AM

It is not the budget!

Great Britain, France, Germany, and now even China have all tried and failed to replicate Hollywood's brand of action movies.

Much as the world - like Songdo City - has also tried and failed to produce Silicon Valley in their back alley.

Yet, the secret formula is very simple: a particular strand of DNA and a perfect storm of environment.

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windsun33

December 2, 2013 at 9:05 AM

You are probably more correct than I am on that. Lower budget was my first thought, but after reading the comments - it is a factor, but not the major one. Perhaps part of it is just experience - not in movie making as such, but in making movies for a worldwide audience, which is something Hollywood has been doing for 75 years.

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bd

December 2, 2013 at 1:17 PM

Really doesn't matter what the budget is (except for the action scenes and special effects).

The original "Terminator" was low budget but had a great screenplay.

T2 had a big budget (great action/special effects) and a good screen play to go along with it.

Those that followed stunk due to crappy screenplays.

The original Matrix film was great; the other 2 stunk.

Look at numerous other action franchises - Batman, Star Wars, etc. - some of the films in the series were good and other stunk due to the writing and direction.

The Korean (or any other film industry) can make good action films but it starts w/ the script/story-line and direction.

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windsun33

December 2, 2013 at 2:04 PM

It kind of makes me wonder who decides what to spend money on, and why some big budget total flops even get done. Speed Racer comes to mind.

But really I think the question is why have so few foreign films done well, and that is something I have not quite figured out yet. Asian movies tend to do especially poorly, with the exception of a couple of the martial arts type movies. Hero (Chinese) did fairly well, at around $50 million, but most others are well under $20 million gross. The original Star Wars did 1.47 Billion (inflation adjusted). In the top 200 list I could not find a single foreign movie (not counting a couple of joint US/other productions). Catching Fire is already over $300 million.

kikidee

December 2, 2013 at 6:51 PM

This is kind of on the topic of a recent article in The Dissolve (a film focused offshoot of Pitchfork)
http://thedissolve.com/features/the-conversation/296-how-asia-is-reshaping-american-film/

Jessica

December 3, 2013 at 7:37 PM

Exactly! Just look at the lower budget Hong Kong action films in the 80s and 90s. Those were amazing to watch because their story had substance (and the actors were amazing.)

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Quiet Thought

December 2, 2013 at 5:03 PM

There's a bit of irony, here, because one of the things I've grown to dislike about American action films over the last couple of decades is that they got too "Asian." Too many over-the-top action scenes like Wuxia martial arts flicks or Hong-Kong cop films, where they mow down a half dozen extras every third or fourth scene and no one bats an eyelash, as if that were just another day's work in a Chinese cop's life.

And, of course, most American films avoid the standard plot in bad East Asian action movies, in which the ultimate cause the hero is fighting for is revenge, because the bad guys are so tough they conquer his country, wipe out his village, destroy his restaurant, seize his martial arts studio, steal his family's sword, burn down his souvenir shop, shoot all the other cops, kick all the other monks of his order to death, torture and maim his friends, exterminate his family, murder his wife, rape and murder his girlfriend, and then, in the next to last scene, beat his best friend to death. And he walks away in triumph after single-handedly wiping out the bad guys. Everyone applaud!

Really, though, Chuck Norris topped that scenario in 'Lone Wolf McQuade'--the movie that inspired 'Walker: Texas Ranger.' David Carradine went through most of the EVIL scenes above, then topped it by shooting Chuck Norris's dog! That earned him a grenade in the mouth in the last scene.

Anyhow, the reverse irony is that I enjoyed 'The Thieves' more than any other heist movie I've watched in the last few years. Because, like a lot of the better classic heist movies, and unlike 'Ocean's Eleven,' the characters were, after all, criminals, and they made decisions like criminals, and their decisions had consequences. It didn't really go over-the-top until that bizarre shoot-out in the apartment building.

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GoldenDiva

December 3, 2013 at 12:17 PM

I agree lke that new movie comin out on Christmas Roimin or smethng lke tht with Keau Reeves alot movies are taking that Asian perspective while in Asia they are takin the soo called Hollywood perspective

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4 noernov

December 1, 2013 at 8:31 PM

He looks DAMN H.O.T!!!!

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5 treatyoshelf

December 1, 2013 at 8:32 PM

Dear Santa, I would like Gong Yoo for Christmas. Please and thank you.

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Porcelain

December 1, 2013 at 8:55 PM

I know... I have to get in line... but ME TOO!!!

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trotwood

December 2, 2013 at 12:53 AM

I am sorry, but I have tried that one for years!! I even spent a whole year (trying) to be good, too. Still, no Gong Yoo. What an unhappy year that was!

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6 cingdoc

December 1, 2013 at 8:59 PM

Hehe....the movie could have been about Gong Yoo selling socks ....I still want to see it...*Sigh*Thank you @girlfriday for the early Xmas present

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7 ss

December 1, 2013 at 9:01 PM

samcheonpo!!

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8 Porcelain

December 1, 2013 at 9:10 PM

Aww Samcheonpo... I saw some cuts of Nameless Gangster and then I watch Answer Me 1994 and I am like wow... mind blown... how are they the same person? Jjang acting all around...

Question... does Samcheonpo wears a weave or not, it seems his real hair seems like its thinning. Not that it matters, but just am curious...

Samcheonpo with Jang Guk Young hairstyle :)

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ilikemangos

December 1, 2013 at 9:26 PM

in one of my fun random facts list, i mentioned that kim sung kyun actually wears a wig for his hair. (that's why it looks so volumized when he's samcheonpo and more thinning in rl)

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9 M

December 1, 2013 at 9:14 PM

Gong Yoooooooooo!!!! <3

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10 Kokare

December 1, 2013 at 9:17 PM

So handsome, so badass. Sigh.

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11 Kokare

December 1, 2013 at 9:21 PM

Oh have you seen samcheonpo in 이웃사람, Neighbors? He looks scary there too.
http://www.hancinema.net/korean_movie_Neighbors.php

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12 kfangurl

December 1, 2013 at 9:23 PM

GONG YOOOO~~~ ❤❤❤

Trailer looks completely awesome, and I wish I could see this on the big screen!!

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13 Yanny

December 1, 2013 at 9:30 PM

OMG excuse me while I pick my jaw off the floor! Wooo Gong yoo is so fine.

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14 yumenas

December 1, 2013 at 11:59 PM

Wow... Gong yoo looks great! The trailer also good. Can't wait for watch the movie. While waiting, don't forget to see Goong Yoo on Runing man next week. ^^

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15 tata

December 2, 2013 at 1:52 AM

IT LOOKS REALLY GOOD. :)

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16 kennagee

December 2, 2013 at 3:51 AM

super excited for his running man guesting too!!!

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mashimomo

December 2, 2013 at 4:46 PM

Squeee!!! I am so watching the Running Man episode this week!

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17 insomniac

December 2, 2013 at 8:38 AM

Gong Yoo!! Hot, charming, beautiful, sexy, intense, cool there are not enough words in dictionary to describe this guy...

its hard to imagine Samcheonpo as anything else but innocent country boy but i have heard he has played bad guys before.. That just shows his versatility i guess. Cant wait to see him in this..

Damn!! These are the times i wish i were in Korea just to watch movies in theaters..

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18 jam

December 2, 2013 at 6:18 PM

off tangent but i cant wait to see him on running man <3 <3 <3 a;ldskfja;sldkfj;lskjdf

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19 Gusya

December 2, 2013 at 7:50 PM

Sam Cheon Po!!!
...And Gong Yoo hotness...sizzzzzle... ^___^

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20 Beky

December 2, 2013 at 11:57 PM

Omy gosh it really looks like matt damons movie It looks really badass just wish They didnt do a copycat theres alot of interesting new concept out there just shame that it lookss like an Asian Remake..But Gong yoo looks really Awesome really happy that his doing diffrent characters.

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21 amzy

December 3, 2013 at 1:44 AM

so much hotnessss, kyaaahh!

even jung kyung ho looks well xDD

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22 SmeeBean

December 3, 2013 at 3:17 AM

Who's excited to see Gong Yoo in running man next week??!I can't wait! Excited enough to explode~ XD

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23 GoldenDiva

December 3, 2013 at 12:13 PM

I get wat u guys are saying but 2 me it feels lke all the borne movies in 1 I mean it does look interesting but I'm still reminded of Bourne and no one NO ONE can do as a amazing job as Matt Damon so I guess that why this feels lke a carbon copy2 me definitely not original but we will see ?

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24 LangitBiru

December 4, 2013 at 10:32 AM

Oppa looks so hot. So he want to become an action hero in the movies. Let him do it.

who is the guy wearing glasses in the still? he look like the meek husband in the King's Family kbs drama?

btw, was sup with all movies this year with north korea/spy/ family plot?

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25 KatKat

December 5, 2013 at 11:48 AM

I'm going to see this movie! First because Gong Yoo opaa!!!Second, because part of that movie was recorded on my hometown >.< :D

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