Director: Im Kyung-Taek
Cast: Lee Si-Young, Park Se-Wan, Lee Joon-Hyuk, Choi Jin-Ho, Lee Hyeong-Cheol, Kim Won-Hae, Kwak Min-Suk, Kim Ki-Moo, Yoon Song-A, An Se-Ha
Running Time: 92 min.
By Paul Bramhall
Not to be confused with the 2010 movie of the same name starring Sol Kyung-gu and Ryoo Seong-bum, the 2019 No Mercy is a DTV action vehicle for amateur boxer turned actress Lee Si-young. The list of boxers who have turned to acting is a short one (and no, Mike Tyson doesn’t count), and female boxers even shorter, so Si-young’s talents have always offered up a unique proposition for any director willing to utilise them. The Korean film industry doesn’t have a particularly big market for action actresses though, and even when they do crank out an action-centric production with a female lead, it’s usually with an established star (Kim Ok-vin in The Villainess and Kim Hye-soo in A Special Lady for example). As a result Si-young has mostly found herself in comparatively conventional roles in flicks like The Divine Move and Descendants of Hong Gil-dong.
Thankfully after her scene stealing turn as a firefighter in the 2020 Netflix series Sweet Home, Si-young found herself in the spotlight, and audiences only had to look a year earlier to find a production that places her action talents front and centre. The world of Korean DTV action flicks is a decidedly low budget one, and ones starring a female lead are a rarity, with 2012’s Lady Furious being the only other that springs to mind, which was a vehicle for stuntwoman Jo Joo-hyun. However No Mercy feels most comparable to another entry in the Korean DTV action genre, in the form of 2011’s The Beast. While the plot involved the rather ridiculous scenario of Jung Suk-won’s characters sister being kidnapped to star in an online porno movie, No Mercy features a similar riff Continue reading
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