Well-loved Korean action star Ma Dong- seok, more popularly known as Don Lee, is back in “The Roundup: No Way Out.”
This time he is battling Japanese gangsters bringing in illegal drugs to Korea.
It sounds like a clichéd, run-of-the-mill, cookie-cutter action vehicle, but for the actual execution.
Writer Kim Min-sung and film director Lee Sang-yong, prove themselves adept in making something so commonplace exciting and fresh.
How? By celebrating the absurdity of it all.
Note the hero of the film is very much like a Cardo Dalisay – a superhuman who can’t be killed.
The difference is that, the character was written tongue-in-cheek.
There is no heavy-handed dialog, no holier-than-thou moments for him.
He doesn’t even use a gun or a knife. He simply relies on his fists even as his enemies brandish swords, baseball bats.
Indeed, Lee is like an Incredible Hulk here minus the green skin.
And he makes the whole film enjoyable, entertaining.
It is as if the Koreans are telling their American counterparts that they can also make a successful superhero franchise with less money and no capes involved.
We thought it interesting that Japanese authorities didn’t raise a holler with the film identifying the main villain as one of their own.
A far cry from when “Plane” was set to open here, with some of our elected senators deeming it fit to ban the film for supposedly painting the country in a bad light.
From Viva International pictures and MVP Entertainment Philippines, “The Roundup: No Way Out” is now in cinemas.
