The Hitman with a heart from the Man from Nowhere(2010)

The Man from Nowhere also known as 아저씨 (Ajeossi) in Korean which translates to Mister in English. The Man from Nowhere is a 2010 South Korean action thriller film starring Won Bin and written and directed by Lee Jeong-beom. It was South Korea’s highest-grossing film in 2010. The film was released in the United States and Canada on October 1, 2010. The film is centered around a mysterious man, Cha Tae-sik, who sets off on a dangerous mission to save his neighborhood companion which is a young girl called Jeong So-mi who lives with her heroin addict mother. This film stands as the last appearance of Won Bin on the big screen as of 2020.

The Man from Nowhere follows the archetype of the “Hitman with a Heart”. The Hitman with a Heart understanding comes from the idea of a mysterious man, highly associated with violence who has a soft spot for a certain being. This man could be or could have been part of organizations such as the CIA. The entity he holds a special attachment to could be an innocent or a harmless creature of any sort, perhaps a child or a small animal (Hitman with a heart). In The Man from Nowhere, Cha Tae-sik presents himself as a secretive and mysterious individual who’s only conversations are with his little friend Jeong So-mi. So-mi is somebody who seeks Tae-sik regardless of their positions. Being lonely herself she only has the company of this man to keep her around. Their relationship is not much to Tae-sik until he understands that So-mi has been kidnapped along with her mother. This starts Tae-sik’s rat race to finding their captor. He finds Somi’s mother dead along the way and fears the same fate may come of So-mi. We also learn of Tae-sik’s painful past and the reason to why he has distanced himself from society. Once So-mi is safe, Tae-sik feels a sense of responsibility towards her and intends to care for her once he has finished his time in prison. The fact that a man who had distanced himself from humanity had chosen to go out and ris it all for the safety of a child he barely knows is indicative of his attachment to So-mi, fulfilling the idea of the hitman with a heart (“Hitman with a Heart”).

As the movie progresses it is indicative of Cha Tae-sik’s combat skills. For a man who was a recluse, his skills in combat just get better through the movie. As Cha Tae-sik goes through various hurdles to get to So-mi, he encounters various “bad guys” along the way. The film showcases slick and clean action sequences. With the on point camera work and the best choreography, the action scenes are visceral and moreover an experience. The film also includes everlasting visuals, specifically the scene where Cha Tae-sik is dropped on to a net in the rain, with perfect symmetry and emotion encased within one shot (theactionelite.com). The film is a perfect blend of action and emotion put out in the best way possible. Actor Won Bin presents an interesting take to Tae-sik as he is indestructible yet there is an evident level of emotions to his character. Even though he is a man of many skills, he is a man with emotions and a broken past.

The Man from Nowhere is an example of Korean action cinema. It is a film that is not very different from typical Hollywood action cinema, yet there is a distinguishable cultural difference between the two.