Review: Quick (Korean Movie)

While waiting for Chilling Romance to be available, I decided to watch Lee Min Ki’s other movie release for this year – Quick. Yes, if you haven’t notice by now, I’m a major fan of Min Ki. There’s something about his awkwardness that really appeals to me. And of course, he was so so dashing in Dalja’s Spring. In a promotional interview, his co-star Sohn Ye Jin (Chilling Romance) mentioned that Min Ki is a hit among noonas because he seems to elicit their motherly instincts. Not necessarily how I feel but I’m glad he’s getting lotsa love in showbiz.

This action-comedy-thriller has been on my radar for quite some time and while I’m not harbouring any great expectations, it IS an action movie after all so of course I expect to see explosions and massive destructions galore, as is the norm. It would seem that all the action movies in this day have only one aim – to create as much mayhem as possible in the space of two hours.

I’m not sure it’s a good idea to actually recap a movie (personally I think it’ll suck out all the fun), so I’ll try to outline the story without giving away too much details in case you do want to watch it for yourself.

The story begins in 2004, when a mascara-streaked, tearful Chun-sim (Kang Ye-won) rides after Han Gi-soo (Lee Min Ki) who’s at the moment leading a horde of bikers running riot across town. She’s flipping mad he’s dumping her for a decidedly lesser woman and he’s ignoring her, looking calm and callous. 

Close behind, Kim Myeong-sik (Kim In-kwon) is yelling after Chun-sim, trying to keep her to himself. Myeong-sik is however apprehended by policeman, Detective Seo (Go Chang-seok) who has doubts over his biker credentials. Well, he does look an awful lot like a pizza deliveryman, with his Papa John’s motorbike. Ha.

Gi-soo inadvertently causes a massive pile-up which involves this huge tanker and when Chun-sim appears to be heading right into the pile-up, Gi-soo finally betrays his concern and goes after her. Cue huge huge explosion.

There’s a six year time jump, and Gi-soo is now a bike messenger, Chun-sim is now known as Ah-rom of a popular girls’ idol group and Myeong-sik has gone to the other side – from a lowly biker to a….low-ranked policeman under Detective Seo. Heh.

Their lives intersect again when Gi-soo is tasked with making some suspicious deliveries by a mysterious caller, while also saddled with the request to send Ah-rom to her concert. The moment she straps on his helmet, thus activating a bomb within the helmet, their lives are irrevocably bound together again. 

The mysterious caller orders him to make several deliveries, within certain time limits if he wants to avoid getting blown up. And since Ah-rom is wearing the helmet instead of him, they are to stay within 10 meters of each other. Gi-soo and Ah-rom are alarmed that all their deliveries ends up in a massive explosions but their hands are tied.

Hot on their trail are Detective Seo and Myeong-sik. Myeong-sik in particular is taking it personally after discovering Chun-sim aka Ah-rom is with Gi-soo, again. The mysterious man behind all these explosions seems to be targeting a certain chemical company and eliminating all the major players of that company. While Seo and his men try to decipher the true perpetrator, the bumbling Myeong-sik reverts to his biker’s roots to try to capture Gi-soo…

So the obvious twist would be the identity of the culprit and the reasons behind his actions….which I’m not gonna reveal here. I got it half right, so you could say it was predictable…

Thoughts: 

For an action movie, it was surprisingly…..boring. I tried to like it, but find the movie falling flat on many occasions. The fact that I repeatedly check the time probably says as much. For the record, the running time is approximately 105mins.

The explosions and chase scenes are there, and they are undeniably impressive but after sometime, they feel…repetitive. Gi-soo and Ah-rom getting back together is a given, but I can’t say their journey is sweet or engaging at all. Perhaps all the shouting is clouding my judgment. I’m not sure if it’s a Korean thing but I swear almost everyone is shouting at one time or the other in this movie.

I’m not a stickler for details but even my blunt logic finds it incredulous that his motorbike is so sturdy and it’s hardly damaged after all that death-defying stunts he pulled. Hihi. Then again, action movies are rarely logical in the first place. So, ok I forgive you.

The comedy element is mostly provided by Myeong-sik and it kinda falls short, well at least for me. I can hardly remember laughing out loud, either at his scenes or any others. The only aspect of the movie that left a deep impression on me is the bts clips at the end of the movie. In Jackie Chan movies style, the clip shows many stunt workers sustaining injuries during filming. There’s even a scene where Kang Ye-won cries during a hospital visit to one of the injured stuntmen…it’s kind of sad.

My Ratings:

2.5 / 5