[Review] Secretly, Greatly (dir. Jang Cheol Soo, 2013)

은밀하게 위대하게 
Secretly, Greatly
Directed by Jang Cheol Soo 
Starring Kim Soo Hyun, Park Ki Woong, Lee Hyun Woo, Son Hyun Joo
2013

The beauty of mediocrity. ★★☆

Relatively spoiler-free. 

Secretly,Greatly is a 2013 action film based on popular webtoon (Korean webcomics) of the same title (sometimes translated into English as Covertness) by webtoon artist Hun. The film already had a relatively large webtoon fanbase coming in, and with the added star-power of its main cast Kim Soo Hyun, Lee Hyun Woo, and Park Ki Woong, but mostly Kim Soo Hyun, it became the fourth-largest grossing movie of South Korea in 2013.

The movie's premise is an odd one. North Korean spy Won Ryu Hwan (Kim Soo Hyun), a highly skilled and deadly assassin, is sent South on a mission. But under bizarre circumstances unexplained to the audience, he is forced to play the 'neighbourhood idiot' for two years. Hence begins the movie. Our main character, whose alias name is Dong Gu, works at a tiny super market in a shanty town, being bullied by local kids third his age, and having to shit in public every few months for his perfect guise, according to his orders. In private, he trains, and waits for a "great mission" from up north.

Along the way, he is joined by his spy camp rival Rhee Hae Rang (Park Ki Woong), whose mission is to become a big rock star in South Korea in order to infiltrate god-knows-what. (He has some really great moments in the movie, including his scene at the playground after the disastrous audition.) And a bit later on, they are joined by a yet another youngin', Rhee Hae Jin (Lee Hyun Woo), who clearly has the hots for Ryu Hwan. He is supposed to play the role of a transfer high school student, but in reality he is the watcher of the area, making sure the spies in the area are following their orders. (He does this rather well, until the very end.)

The main romance of the movie? 

I will try to keep this relatively spoiler free, so let's just say that our trio of adorable spies finally receive an order from above, and it's not something that they expected. The film then takes on a rather drastic turn as it turns into a grim action-melodrama.

You know things aren't gonna be the same when the main character gets a haircut. 

There are countless plot holes in this film, perhaps too many to really take the movie seriously. Exactly why does Ryu Hwan need to pretend like the village idiot, out of all things, for any sort of espionage? Why do these North Korean spies speak to each other so loudly in this small, crowded neighbourhood in their North Korean dialect? These questions that come up earlier during the movie are ones the audience could ignore, because the movie itself didn't take itself very seriously. But as soon as it tries to become serious - instill some sense of reality into this fantastical universe - everything becomes a bit too confusing and too nonsensical. From the actual North-South politics to the ultimate face-off between the main twink spy trio and their Big Bad Mentor (Son Hyun Joo), then to the extremely frustrating final shootout (Why does this defector NIS dude care about them so much, and why is he so irresponsible?), there are way too many unexplained events and developments to really be invested in what is happening on screen.

The actors are not at fault here, because they do their job rather greatly. Kim Soo Hyun is wonderful in the title role as Ryu Hwan/Bong Gu, masterfully switching back and forth between the methodical spy and the village idiot. Park Ki Woong pulls his load as the other main comic relief, while Lee Hyun Woo is tragically adorable in his portrayal of the Ryu Hwan-crazed Hae Jin. (There's some major queerbaiting going on here between the two. I'm sure it was planned.) Even the supporting cast is pretty great, and you genuinely wish the best for Bong Gu's adoptive super market family and their neighbours.

The main problem of the film is its lazy execution. Not only did the film take the webtoon panel-to-panel and put it in live action in some instances, it failed to develop on the source material and try to fill the glaring plot holes already present in the original series. And the pace of the movie seems extremely off. The comedic part moves quite slowly, almost at a weekly-run webtoon speed, and suddenly, as soon as it turns dark, it speeds through, as if it realized that it had to fit in all these developments in two-ish hours. The audience is presented with a plot twist after plot twist after plot twist in a short time span, which all become jumbled together for the climax. And the climax is, unfortunately, comically anti-climactic amid all the sudden and poor development. You only care because the main lead is so attractive.

Poor babies. Your movie is a mess but you will not be forgotten.

I would call this movie a perfect example of what I consider a Mediocre & Memorable Movie. There are a couple of Korean movies that fall into this category because they present you with something memorable that will probably outlive its mediocrity in your mind and make you want to watch the movie again, some time in the future. Most often these memorable factors come in the form of fascinating (and beautiful) characters. Kim Soo Hyun is really cute in Secretly, Greatly. That's about it, and that's probably all it needs for me (and countless others who've seen the movie) to bring it out months or years down the road for a re-watch, despite its mediocrity.