[KFCC] Shiri Review

Story: The South Korean intelligence service uncovers a plot of North Korean agents that are trying to acquire a new liquid bomb called CTX. It is feared that this weapon will be used to various acts of terrorism as this explosive is undetectable. During the course of the investigation, the North Koreans always have the upper hand because an information leak is suspected. The two lead agents on this case start to suspect each other of being the information leak. They must find the source of the leak and what is the real target of the North Koreans before it is too late.

Review: This is an action packed movie with a mixed influence from both Hollywood and Hong Kong. It has the taste of big productions like The Rock yet holds elements of Asian cinema. Get ready for a surprising storyline with a couple twist and turns, we made sure to leave out all details from our summery of the story. The basic context for the story is pretty simple but how it evolves and develops that what makes it very good. It is one of those Cop/intelligence movies with a good share of action thrown in

There isn't too many main characters in this film so you wont get confused with who's who. The background on the characters is limited, only a few have some depth to their personal lives but none the less the characters have a strong presence. You may not have the feeling of really knowing them but you get attach to them. The villains are especially well portrayed, they have spirit and are very convincing. The general acting is very good as all the roles in this film are indeed convincing.

This movie is full of counter espionage action, snipers, heavy gun fights, swat teams, bomb threats, basically it has it all, well except for a car chase. The detail in which the scenes of action was put together looks good, but of course there were times it was exaggerated a bit. There is one minor point to mention is that during some scenes you noticed the shaky camera, it was somewhat annoying. We are guessing it might be because of the full frame format, we don't remember the shaky camera when we saw it at the theater. The action scenes are nicely counter balanced with the quieter part of the film, it is of equal proportion so you wont get bored of either action or dialog.

We originally saw this movie at Fantasia 99, we really liked it and decided to find it on VCD. Unfortunately it was not easy to find and the only version we could find has no subtitles. This movie was released in Hong Kong and was extremely popular so we are expecting a subtitled version to be released soon but nothing is confirmed, we are hoping. In Korea this was the biggest success ever, even beating Titanic at the box office. The reason for this extreme popularity is simple, Swiri has an excellent mix of characters, storyline, action and a great soundtrack that is similar to those like in the movie The Rock. This is a beautifully made movie such as they would make in Hollywood but with more depth than what Hollywood would do. If you like action movies like The Rock (USA) or Extreme Crisis (HK) you will certainly like this movie.