“Mission: Cross” Netflix Poster
Director: Lee Myung-Hoon
Cast: Hwang Jung-Min, Yum Jung-Ah, Jung Man-sik, Lee Ho-chul, Cha Rae-hyung, Jeon Hye-jin, Kim Chan-Hyung, Kim Joo-Hun, Jonathan Yiombi
Running Time: 105 min.
By Paul Bramhall
3 years after the unexpected global success of the Netflix series Squid Game, the streaming giant continues to plough money into Korean content, with the countries K-dramas coming to enjoy the same level of popularity globally as they have within Asia for most of the 21st century. Movies haven’t escaped the streaming services sights either, sometimes exclusively distributing them, and other times producing them. The latest to arrive on the platform is Mission: Cross, frequently referenced as a Korean mix of Mr. & Mrs. Smith meets True Lies, which while feeling like a lazy comparison also isn’t entirely untrue (and at this point any action movie that escapes a “insert movie title here meets John Wick” comparison must be worth a look.
For fans of Korean cinema, particularly those that got into it during the Korean Wave of the early 2000’s, the biggest selling point of Mission: Cross will be to see 2 performers synonymous with the era sharing the screen together for the first time. While Hwang Jung-min’s popularity skyrocketed during the 2010’s, personally I’ll always associate him with the likes of 2001’s Waikiki Brothers and 2003’s A Good Lawyer’s Wife. When it comes to Yum Jung-ah, when I was first getting into Korean cinema it felt like it was impossible to watch a horror movie without her presence – 1999’s Tell Me Something, 2002’s H, and 2003’s A Tale of Two Sisters were all unforgettable roles, and she’s continued to go from strength to strength (most recently as the comedic sorceress in Choi Dong-hoon’s Alienoid and its sequel).
In Mission: Cross they’re cast as husband and wife, with Jung-ah playing a tough as nails senior inspector who leads a trio of bumbling subordinates (played by Korean cinema regulars Jung Man-sik – Veteran, Lee Ho-chul – The Piper, and Cha Rae-hyung – The Anchor). Jung-min on the other hand is mostly on house husband duty, working parttime as a kindergarten bus driver, and so timid that even Jung-ah’s team refer to him as her “Mrs.”. Of course it doesn’t take long for the plot to reveal that Jung-min isn’t all that he initially seems, when a chance encounter with someone from his past reveals that he used to be a special forces operative in Korea’s Defence Intelligence Command.
He left after his teammate was killed during an operation, however that soon changes when he runs into a former colleague played by Jeon Hye-jin (Hunt, Ashfall). She also happens to be the pregnant wife of their team leader, and after she explains to Jung-min he’s gone missing, Jung-min’s loyalty to his old boss sees him dragged back into the game on a mission to find his whereabouts. Mission: Cross bills itself as an action comedy, and most of the latter comes from Jung-ah’s subordinates spotting Jung-min and Hye-jin together, assuming they’re having an affair. The fact that Jung-min tries to conduct his investigation without Jung-ah finding out only makes it look worse, leading her to slowly comes to terms with the fact that her timid husband may in fact be seeing another woman behind her back.
Naturally the expected misunderstandings are eventually resolved and put to one side to take down the villain of the piece, and first-time director and scriptwriter Lee Myung-hoon banks on the audience being invested in the journey to get there. For the most part he succeeds, however there’s an inescapable feeling that it does so based on setting itself a rather low bar to live up to. Like so much content that’s made primarily for streaming, the 105 minutes that make up Mission: Cross pass by in a perfectly pleasant, completely inoffensive kind of way. The pacing feels like it moves along in a comfortable third gear, however it never really pushes itself into fourth or fifth, and for me the biggest issue with productions like this is that it also feels like there was never any intention to even try.
Similarly the script never comes across like it’s making any real effort. When Jung-min first meets Hye-jin she tells him there’s believed to be a mole in the ranks of their team, and that it was likely them that sold their boss out to an enemy. It’s a revelation that feels like it should add some narrative intrigue to the plot, however it never comes close. This is largely down to the fact that Myung-hoon neglects to allow the audience to meet anyone else on Jung-min’s former team outside of Hye-jin and her husband, so with such a limited character pool to choose from, even before the scene has finished it’s painfully obvious that the mole has to be her.
Lamentably once Hye-jin’s villain status is revealed she resorts to a similar disastrous approach that Han Hyo-joo opted for in Believer 2 (hands down the worst Korean movie produced by Netflix of all time), seemingly under the impression that slightly tilting your head to one side is a sign of villainous intent. That leaves the action to pick up the slack, however unfortunately what’s on display never rises above generic. Shootouts feel stale and unimaginative, plagued by ugly digital muzzle flashes, and the unforgiving digital photography sometimes reveals sets that feel rushed and lacking in detail.
Myung-hoon comes across as a competent director, however as a debut it’s clear he doesn’t yet fully understand how to use the medium of cinema to extract comedic value from the scenes he’s created. This is no more apparent than during a vehicle chase that sees Jung-min and Jung-ah commandeering a sewage disposal truck. The setup is an obvious one that’ll have the contents of the truck unleashed over those in pursuit, but Myung-hoon oddly films the sequence straight faced, as if watching faeces being sprayed all over the road in itself should be enough for the audience to laugh. There’s no real sense of comedic timing, the comedic reactions of those involved are non-existent, and then we’re onto the next scene.
In fairness it’s likely that Mission: Cross was always intended as a piece of throwaway entertainment, not expected to be remembered a day after watching it. This is reenforced by a sequence that plays over the end credits, one that sees Jung-min and Jung-ah interrogating popular Korean YouTuber Jonathan Yiombi, and a cringe inducing in-joke reference to Jung-min’s role in the Netflix series Narco-Saints. It’s the kind of scene that’ll maintain its relevance for a few years at most, and I’d be willing to bet in 10 years’ time will likely have audiences scratching their heads. The point being of course, that Netflix won’t be expecting anyone to be watching Mission: Cross in 10 years’ time, in fact it’ll probably have long disappeared from the platform and become a minor footnote in the filmographies of all those involved.
Ultimately the enjoyment of Mission: Cross will, like practically any movie, be dependent on the audience’s tastes who are watching it. For those who’ve come to accept, or have never known any different, that many of the movies made for streaming services are not meant to be watched with the viewer giving it their full attention, but rather be the ‘second screen’ as its called by the industry, then it passes the time well enough. For those who go through the ritual of placing their phone on Do Not Disturb, insist on watching movies on as large a screen as possible, and give whatever production they’re watching their full attention, then it’s perhaps not surprising that such content is always going to be found lacking.
In the case of Mission: Cross, as the credits rolled I couldn’t help but feel like I’d just watched a couple of back-to-back episodes of the latest K-drama that’s doing its best to appeal to a global audience. Decidedly uncinematic and devoid of any sense of escalating tension, it’s the pairing of Hwang Jung-min and Yum Jung-ah who succeed in keeping it watchable, but it’s certainly never anything more than that.
Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 5/10
“ For those who’ve come to accept, or have never known any different, that many of the movies made for streaming services are not meant to be watched with the viewer giving it their full attention, but rather be the ‘second screen’ as its called by the industry.”
This pisses me off. I hate that we live in a time period where not only do most audiences not want to pay attention to a movie, but people are making movies for those specific audience members. The idea that movies are now just a thing that plays in the background while people stare at their phones is disappointing.
Agreed, it’s an unfortunate reality. I’d say the same level of effort that’s gone into the poster design is mirrored in the production itself, which is to say, it’s barely serviceable (although the first thing I was reminded of when I saw the poster was the infamous Dragon Dynasty DVD cover for ‘PTU’, with its bombastic explosions that don’t actually appear anywhere in the movie itself!).
Unfortunately, this film is a demonstration of that. This film was entirely predictable, and I kept skipping scenes until the good parts. Quite a lot of scenes actually and I was still able to follow the plot. The action is serviceable. But what really let me down was the comedy. You would think that the volatile wife would be more mad at her husband for lying to her all these years.
It seems kind of stupid that someone would decide to combine True Lies with Mr and Mrs Smith since both movies already have a lot in common. It’s almost as redundant as combining Sympathy for Mr Vengeance with Oldboy or The Suspect with The Berlin File.
Something interesting could have been done well with this concept though. It could have been as charming as Extreme Job if it wasn’t being pumped out quickly.