Yaksha: Ruthless Operations (2022) Review

“Yaksha: Ruthless Operations” Netflix Poster

Director: Nah Hyeon
Cast: Sol Kyung-Gu, Park Hae-Soo, Yang Dong-Geun, Lee El, Song Jae-Rim, Jin Young, Hiroyuki Ikeuchi 
Running Time: 125 min.

By Paul Bramhall

Taking its title from a type of spirit that exists in Hindu and Buddhist culture responsible for looking after hidden treasures, Yaksha: Ruthless Operations is also the name of the latest Korean offering from Netflix. Far from being a supernatural outing, here the reference is made to Sol Kyung-gu’s (Idol, Memoir of a Murderer) crumpled secret operative, who we meet in the opening scene on the tail of a double agent in Hong Kong. Bolting straight out of the gates, we get a grenade in the shape of a Yaksha’s head (or at least, that’s what I think it was), a vehicular chase that leaves a trail of destruction in its wake, and an intense fight scene as Kyung-gu and the double agent face off. With the Hong Kong police on his tail, Kyung-gu makes a call to advise the receiver that he’s going to fold, and proceeds to drop off the map.

Skipping ahead 4 years later and we meet righteous prosecutor played by Park Hae-soo (Time to Hunt, Pirates), who finds himself demoted when his team make an error that sees a high-profile client slip through the net. Redemption may be on the cards through when he’s offered a chance at being reinstated, coming in the form of a trip to Shenyang in Mainland China. It’s explained the city has the highest number of spies in Asia, and is essentially one large black site where power struggles between North and South Korea, China, and Japan play out hidden from view to the naked eye. Korea’s Intelligence Agency has a team there who work off the radar, however it’s become clear that the reports being sent through for the last 6 months are fake, and it’s now gotten to a point where there’s no choice but to send someone to investigate.

Helmed by scriptwriter turned director Nah Hyeon, Yaksha: Ruthless Operations marks his sophomore directorial outing after 2016’s entertaining The Prison. While his debut unfolded in the confines of the prison grounds, this time he has a whole city for his tale to play out in, and the China setting makes for a pleasingly different change of surrounds from the usual locales we see Korean thrillers take place in. Perhaps unsurprisingly, once the by-the-book Hae-soo arrives in Shenyang, it turns out that’s where Kyung-gu has ended up since the incident in Hong Kong which opens the movie. His outfit work out of a travel agency that acts as a front, with his team of 4 consisting of intel guy Yang Dong-geun (The Night of the Undead, Fighter in the Wind), the always ready for action Song Jae-rim (Tunnel 3D, Grand Prix), level-headed Lee El (The Call, Inside Men), and tech expert Jinyoung here making his movie debut.

For the first third of Yaksha: Ruthless Operations director Hyeon strikes an impressive balance, creating several layers of intrigue while also establishing characters and throwing in a number of action beats along the way. Playing the fish out of water, Hae-soo soon finds his overly confident demeanour as an investigator sent from HQ crumbling away once he finds himself being shot at and assaulted at almost every turn, with the realisation setting in that he may be in over his head. The narrative throws a lot of information out there, with talks of shady deals and trade-offs between the North East Asian neighbours successfully establishing a world where it’s either kill or be killed. Amongst all the intrigue the underlying question that never feels far away is if Kyung-gu himself has flipped and is spying for an enemy, leading to the reports in question being faked. 

It’s during this ambiguous part of the narrative when Yaksha: Ruthless Operations is at its strongest, with the always charismatic Kyung-gu playing a character who could well be an ancestor of his detective from Public Enemy 20 years earlier. He may not do things by the book, but he does get things done, even if that involves needing to put a bullet in someone’s head. When the main plot gradually comes to the forefront, involving the hunt for the Head of Room 39 – a North Korean government division responsible for controlling Kim Jong-un’s slush fund – the pace is turned up a notch, as it’s revealed he has valuable information that was willing to be traded. What that information is no one knows, however it seems they’re not the only ones after it, with the Japanese also looking to secure the information for themselves.

It’s at this point that unfortunately Hyeon lays all of his cards on the table a little too early, as it quickly becomes apparent that underneath the initially promising layers of spy fuelled intrigue and mystery, is in fact a rather straightforward tale of villainous Japanese up to their old tricks. This time their goal is to prevent relations improving between the North and South, under the belief that if Korea was to ever become unified again, it’d pose a threat to Japan’s position in the North East Asian region. On head villain duty is Hiroyuki Ikeuchi (Outrage Coda, Manhunt), an actor who’s become the go-to Japanese presence for villain roles in Asian cinema since he featured in 2008’s Ip Man alongside Donnie Yen (notably this isn’t his first Korean production either, having also featured in 2019’s The Battle: Roar to Victory).

With the most interesting aspect of the narrative pushed to the background barely over halfway through the 125-minute runtime, Yaksha: Ruthless Operations coasts along for much of its 2^nd half, but it’s not enough to disguise the fact that most of the characters are fairly one-note and dull. In fact one of the most interesting characters, a North Korean agent played by Jin Seo-yeon (Believer, Love 911) who’s romantically involved with Kyung-gu, is unforgivably given short thrift to the point of being forgotten about all together in the closing scenes. The narrative unfortunately takes a detour into mostly perfunctory action sequences, with the shootouts in particular lacking any real excitement, and predictable plot twists. The latter contains one character returning from the dead that makes no sense whatsoever, even when an explanation is provided, making an already glaring plot hole into a sinkhole sized calamity.

It almost feels as if halfway through director Hyeon got a memo from Netflix asking to make Yaksha: Ruthless Operations the first in an intended franchise, as the tone changes considerably and not necessarily for the better. Kyung-gu and Hae-soo share a number of what feel like awkwardly shoehorned in buddy moments, where they put aside their differences and build the obligatory mutual respect. Worse of all though is a series of painfully green screened scenes of the team partaking in everyday jobs (think high rise window cleaner, tour guide etc.) all over the world that plays over the end credits. Kyung-gu makes a call to Hae-soo advising there’s an even more despicable villain that’s come to light, and he’ll need his and the teams help to take him down, so it’s time to get the gang back together for what will presumably become Yaksha 2: Even More Ruthless Operations.

Before all of that though, we get a finale involving a drone delivery containing hundreds of rats dumped on the Japanese Consulate, more unremarkable shootouts, and the expected face-off between Kyung-gu and Ikeuchi. It’s a by the numbers action finale that fails to earn any goodwill to make the predictability of what’s come before seem like it was worth sitting through, instead delivering a perfectly acceptable but far from remarkable conclusion from a tale which seemed intent on delivering so much more.

After such a promising start, it’s almost painful to watch Yaksha: Ruthless Operation go from what appears to be a gritty China set spy thriller, to a generic and overly long action flick complete with what feels like a rent-a-soundtrack and dull plot. Sol Kyung-gu’s performance at least ensures it maintains a shred of respectability and remains watchable, but this rivals 2013’s The Spy in terms of testing the patience of the actor’s fans. Ultimately Yaksha: Ruthless Operations is one of those movies that I desperately wanted to like – I love Korean cinema, I love action movies, and I love the cast – but no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t.

Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 5/10