A South Korean government agent, Lee Han-kyu (the awesome Kang-ho Song), is heading up a task force to capture the notorious North Korean assassin Shadow. Shadow is in town to execute some traitors who escaped from the North and then dared to openly talk shit about Kim Jong-il. Shadow has a brand new trainee with him, Song Ji-won. Song went to spy school, but when he sees firsthand the brutality of executing an entire family he has second thoughts. Right as Shadow is killing the family, Lee's men show up and Song escapes (because of this he's labeled a traitor by the North). Shadow, being a complete badass, shoots the shit out of everybody and escapes himself. The whole event is a disaster and Agent Lee is blamed for everything. He's disgraced and then fired.Six years later Lee is now using his detective skills to catch runaway wives. One night while working on a case, he runs into Song. Both recognize the other, but act like they don't. Lee, thinking Song is still an undercover spy, wants to use him to crack a spy ring and become a hero. Song, thinking Lee is still an undercover agent, wants to use him to get information to sell so he can pay for his family to defect from the North. So with both of them wanting something from the other they team up to catch fugitive wives.
That kinda sounds like the set-up for a bizarre buddy comedy, but this movie is pretty serious and the action scenes are good, especially the ones featuring Shadow. That dude was awesome! He might be old (the same actor played the police chief in I SAW THE DEVIL), but when he wanted you dead there was nothing stopping him. His performance nearly stole the movie and with an lesser actor in the lead he might have, but Kang-ho Song isn't going to let that happen. He's great and he's really starting to become one of my favorite actors.
Plenty of action, a few laughs, fights, shoot outs, car wrecks, strong character development, exciting camerawork and a satisfying ending. The only thing this movie was missing was a beautiful woman, but oh well we can't have everything. Well worth renting.
