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Typhoon
R1 - America - Genius Products Review written by and copyright: Andreas Petersen (28th May 2008). |
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The Film
 Only a week ago, while reviewing the film "A Dirty Carnival" (2006), I made the bold statement that I had yet to see a Korean movie I didn’t enjoy. I insisted that, for whatever reason, Korean movies were consistently better than any other nation. Well, as the saying goes, all good things must come to an end. My Korean movie streak has ended with the arrival of "Typhoon", a movie that I found less than enjoyable. Now, by no means do I want to insinuate that "Typhoon" is a terrible movie, only that it fails to live up to high standards I have for Korean cinema. "Typhoon", directed by Kyung-Taek Kwak, tells the story of Sejong (Lee Jung Jae), a South Korean enlisted in the US Navy, that is brought in on a secret mission to secure rogue nukes, stolen by North Korean Sin (Dong-Kun Jang). In the mix, Sejong secures Sin’s estranged sister (Mi-youn Lee). Sejong vows to reunite the two if Sin turns over the nukes. Of course things don’t turn out that simple, and so the movie progresses. My chief complain about "Typhoon" is that it never really figures out what movie it is trying to be. The first scene of the movie would suggest I was watching a touching drama about a family torn from their homeland, while the very next scene showcases brutal violence and action, suggesting I was in for a blockbuster. This uneven presentation made the movie feel clumsy through most of the film, and I never felt like it hit any sort of stride. All of the dramatic parts are far too melodramatic, and the action bits are far too brief, while at the same time are just not that thrilling to be perfectly honest. This isn’t helped by the fact that half the time the movie is trying to be a Michael Bay flick, with swooping helicopter pans, and a title appearing on the screen going “beepedybeepbeepbeepdy” every time a scene changes. You know what I’m talking about. Another problem I had with this film may actually turn out to be a positive for any other person. The film’s plot takes characters all across the world, including Thailand, Russia, Korea, and others. All the while, multiple languages are used, with the same subtitle font and color presented to accompany them. In multi-lingual movies, I like to know that different languages are being spoken, because I have a hard time differentiating between Thai and Korean, and this would also help identify which characters understand who. The way the movie stands, I just couldn’t follow what was happening half the time with the multiple languages being used. On a similar note, I was extremely confused by extended sequences in which non-USA characters would speak English (all the while, acting very poorly), and then in others, revert back to their native tongue. In the end, it is hard to call "Typhoon" a bad film. It isn’t particularly acted poorly, directed sophomorically, and at times I was somewhat entertained. Maybe my expectations for the film were too high. Maybe from here on out, I won’t expect every Korean movie to be gold. With movies like "Typhoon", that shouldn’t be a problem anymore.
Video
"Typhoon" is presented in a decent 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer. The movie looks consistently good throughout, and only on certain occasions in particular scenes did I have a difficult time seeing what was happening on screen. This happened primarily in night-scenes, but I’m not convinced that the scenes themselves were supposed to be “well-lit” as I could still tell who was talking.
Audio
"Typhoon" is offered in a great Korean Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound track. Definitely the highest point for this disc is the audio. The soundtrack comes out clear, as well as all of the multilingual dialogue, and the actions scenes that are there come to life as the sound movement around the room never ceased to amaze me. Optional subtitles are included in English.
Extras
Genius Products offers a making-of documentary as well as individual featurettes. They are examined below: “The Making of Typhoon” is a documentary running for 47 minutes and 14 seconds, offers the viewer a behind-the-scenes look at the overall production of the film. The making-of is very complete, offering numerous interviews, as well as examinations of how the film was made. While this is a very complete documentary, I didn’t find it terribly interesting, as I wasn’t too attached to the film itself, and neither did it ever make me wonder “how’d they do that?” This will be a good watch for people who enjoyed the film, but for the likes of me, I got bored fast. The disc also offers four featurettes, the first, entitled "Location" runs for 24 minutes and 7 seconds, take a closer look at how much work went into the film’s diverse look, as it was filmed in three vastly different countries. Cast and crew interviews outline how daunting it was to film in three different countries. The next featurette is "Production Design", running for 21 minutes and 2 seconds. This featurette focuses on how the film’s look was achieved through set design and other artistic endeavors. "Visual Effects" is the third featurette and runs for 9 minutes and 3 seconds, interviews the people behind the film’s special FX. I found this particular clip to be especially interesting, as it showcases the classic methods of models mixed with the new methods of CG, creating some interesting effects. Lastly is "Tattoo" a featurette running for 6 minutes and 59 seconds. This clip specifically focuses on the numerous pieces of body-art presented on characters in the film, including why certain designs were chosen, and where others come from. Also, it was interesting to see how tattoos are applied in film without ever really “inking” the actors, using something called “magic tattoo”.
Overall
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