Kim Chang-Ju co-wrote, directed and edited this South Korean action thriller, Hard Hit.
The film follows VIP Bank Manager Sung-Gyu, played by Jo Woo-jin. He tends to the demands of a bank’s essential customers. And somehow, it leads him to the worse day of his life.
The movie, directed by Dani de la Torre, provides a familiar suspenseful plot based on the Spanish-French action thriller Retribution (2015).
Sung-Gru drives his daughter and son to school one morning. Along the way, a phone rings from the glove box. An anonymous caller claims there’s a bomb under Sung-gyu’s seat, and if anyone exits the car, it will explode unless Sung-gyu can pay a hefty ransom.
What initially feels like a prank call quickly turns into an edge-of-your-seat thriller. The action-packed sequences hold the movie together. Sure, we feel for the family and their dangerous situation, but the car chases through a maze of alternate roles of attack and defense.
The original music composed by Kim Tae-Seong adds suspenseful undertones and overtones, perfect for developing a calm, typical weekday to a vibrant, hellbent high-speed chase at the mercy of a sinister bomber.
Sung-gyu must simultaneously ensure the safety of his children, find enough money to pay the ransom and evade the police, all while trying to figure out what he did in his past to deserve this.
Woo-jin does a dynamic job of acting primarily behind the wheel of a car. He holds his emotions by expressing tension and remorseful angst. Ji Chang-Wook also stars and is believable in this new gem of a role, another side we’ve yet to see.
The movie received three nominations in 2021 at the Buil Film Awards and the Blue Dragon Film Awards.
IMDB and Wikipedia helped with background information, reviews and character roles.
All you have to do is watch the four-and-a-half-minute trailer to know The Unknown Man of Shandigor (L’inconnu De Shandigor, 1967) is a spy-thriller. Any movie enthusiast wants to see the Blu-ray version of this classic.
Directed by Swiss filmmaker Jean-Louis Roy, this long-unseen 60s Cold War super-spy features legendary French singer and songwriter Serge Gainsbourg and famed Chilean cult actor Daniel Emilfork.
Marie-France Boyer as Sylvaine
Recently restored in 4K from the camera negative by the Cinémathèque Suisse, the visually stunningmovie screened initially at the Cannes Film Festival in 1967. The Blu-ray features new interviews with the director’s wife, Francoise Roy and first assistant director on the film Michel Schopfer, along with an ultra-rare 1967 Swiss TV “making of” documentary featuring the director with behind-the-scenes footage and new artwork by acclaimed illustrator Tony Stella.
I marveled at the surreal hall of mirrors, reminding me of Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove and British TV shows like “The Avengers” and “Doctor Who.”
The fine cast includes most who’s who of great 60s European character actors starting with the unforgettable Daniel Emilfork as crazed scientist Herbert Von Krantz, who has invented a device to “sterilize” all nuclear weapons.
A mad herd of rival spies is desperate to get their hands on the device, including legendary French singer Serge Gainsbourg as the sect leader of bald, turtleneck-wearing assassins and Jess Franco veteran Howard Vernon.
Gainsbourg’s deranged jazz-lounge song, “Bye Bye Mr. Spy”— performed by him on a funeral parlor organ, no less — is arguably the film’s high point. “An accomplished spy is at the same time psychologist, artist, funambulist, conjurer,” to quote one of the film’s characters, and the same said of Roy’s exotic camera obscura of black and white Cold War paranoia. The movie is in Swiss French with English subtitles, like the trailer.
Blu-Ray Bonus Features
• New 4K Restoration from the original 35mm picture and sound elements by Cinémathèque Suisse with additional digital restoration by Craig Rogers of Deaf Crocodile
• New Commentary by film journalist Samm Deighan (Diabolique magazine, Daughters of Darkness podcast)
• New Booklet essay by filmmaker, punk musician and poet, and genre expert Chris D. (The Flesh Eaters; author of Outlaw Masters of Japanese Film)
• New interview with Francoise Roy, wife of director Jean-Louis Roy, and Michel Schopfer, first assistant director on The Unknown Man of Shandigor (17 min., in Swiss French with English subtitles)
• Ultra- rare 1967 “making of” documentary from Swiss TV’s “Cinema VIF” show, featuring interviews with director Jean-Louis Roy, cast members Daniel Emilfork, Jacques Dufilho, and Marie-France Boyer, and behind-the-scenes footage (28 min., in Swiss French with English subtitles)
• Restored original trailer (4 min., in French with English subtitles)
• Blu-ray encoding and authoring by David Mackenzie/Fidelity in Motion
Her husband, daughter, land and innocence ripped from her, she embarks on a brutal journey of retribution and revenge.
Written and directed by Victoria Wharfe McIntyre, The Flood is her debut feature film. The movie takes place during WWII. McIntyre brings a flavor of the Wild West throughout the movie. “The Flood is an action-packed, dramatic western-styled adventure that uses our nation’s history as a framework to support an uncompromising, exacting and romantic and delicate female-driven story that acts as a parable for race relations in our country.”
“It is a world of juxtapositions and grave injustice as we move through the lives of black, white and women of color, young and old, rich and poor, contrasting their grief, love, loss and rage against a ruthless rural patriarchy in WWII Australia.”
The story starts when Jarah’s Irish drover father and South Sea Islander mother die during a flood. She’s sent to live on Pastor Gerald Mackay’s mission, played by Peter McAllum.
Here, she meets Waru, an Aboriginal boy who becomes the love of her life and future husband. Jarah, played by Alexis Lane, and Waru, played by Shaka Cook, grow up together and have a daughter Binda, played by Simone Landers.
When WWII is in full swing, Waru and the mission men receive citizenship for military service. Waru goes to war against Jarah’s wishes.
While he was gone, the Aboriginal Welfare Board removed the children from the mission and subsumed their land. Jarah finds herself an enslaved person on a wealthy landholder’s estate and loses contact with Binda, who is working on the now-retired Gerald Mackay’s cattle farm.
Waru returns from the war with his mate Minto, played by Aaron Jeffery, a white soldier who owes his life to Waru on the battlefield. When Waru discovers what has happened to Binda and Jarah, he sets out to recover his family. Waru unwittingly kills Gerald’s son Kelly and flees with Binda to find Jarah.
Gerald sends for Kelly’s brother Shamus, played by Dean Kyrwood, and his brutal black tracking gang. Shamus arrives in town to find the local men incarcerated. Jarah is determined to use her to lure Waru back from the bush. Shamus and his gang violate Jarah, igniting a rage in her that stokes the fires of brutal and bloody revenge. Jarah forms an unlikely alliance with Pam, a mature white woman, played by Karen Garnsey, who has experienced her torment and is ready to act against the men and their atrocities.
Jarah plans, and with Pam’s help, she escapes her cell and travels with Minto to find Waru and Binda, who Shamus has captured.
Shamus kills Binda and drags Waru and Jarah back to town. Binda’s death transforms Jarah into something altogether new, something even she does not understand. She plunges into the unchartered territory of her darkness.
Jarah escapes once more and demands Waru’s help to destroy the town.
Through his own profound wartime experience, Waru understands that revenge will not ease Jarah’s pain, but he supports her.
With Waru’s help, Jarah wipes out the town and discovers Waru is correct. Her agony has not eased, but she is not ready to give up this approach. Jarah, Waru and Waru’s sister Maggie, played by Dalara Williams, flee, taking Shamus.
Jarah tortures Shamus, and eventually, he breaks. To Jarah’s consternation, Maggie determines to help Shamus connect once more to the goodness deep within. Through Maggie’s kindness, Shamus embarks on his inner journey of memory and feeling and can see he is a product of generations and generations of unending brutality. A seed of healing and hope births within him.
Jarah and Waru confront their rage and sorrow at the loss of Binda and the schism within their relationship.
Eventually, their love carries them through the darkness. Maggie is a pillar of compassion, understanding and spirit and is a catalyst for healing between them all.
Minto finds the near-dead Binda and brings her to Pam, a nurse in WWI. Together, they save her life. Gerald finds and takes them, with the police, to find Waru and Jarah and bring them to justice.
In a classic western show-down and shoot-out, Shamus willingly sacrifices himself for Maggie. Binda returns from the dead to her parents. Gerald goes the way of the dinosaurs, and Jarah touches on the prospect of forgiveness.
They find a fresh path of reconciliation and redemption between those who remain.
I am so glad that not everyone died. Justice is not as it appears, workable based on the circumstances of trying to survive.
The Flood garnered some awards at the Sydney Women’s International Film Festival: Best Director, Best Australian Film, and Best Actress for Alexis Lane.
