Unstoppable (2018) Review

“Unstoppable” Theatrical Poster

Direcor: Kim Min-ho
Writer: Kim Min-Ho
Cast: Ma Dong-Seok, Song Ji-Hyo, Kim Sung-Oh, Kim Min-Jae, Ji-Hwan, Lee Sung-Woo, Bae Noo-Ri, Park Ji-Hoon, Park Kwang-Jae, Lim Hyung-Joon
Running Time: 115 min.

By Paul Bramhall

It’s fair to say that if The Man from Nowhere was Korea’s Taken, then Unstoppable is Korea’s Taken 2. One had Won Bin tracking down the traffickers who kidnapped his neighbour’s child, while the other has Ma Dong-seok tracking down the traffickers who’ve kidnapped his wife. Of course it’s been 8 years since The Man from Nowhere, and since then Korean cinema has largely moved away from the no frills action narrative, despite such an approach being one of its biggest strengths. These days it’s all about undercover cops and corrupt businessmen, and the twisty narratives that usually accompany them. So to see a return to the genre trope of an everyman seeking to save their loved one is a welcome sight, and the fact they want to punish the bad guys just as much is all part of the ride. As Liam Neeson once said, “It’s personal to me.”

In 2018, making Ma Dong-seok the everyman in question is such an obvious choice, it’s a wonder it’s taken this long for Unstoppable to get made. Clearly the last couple of years have been Dong-seok’s time to shine. After stealing the show in the zombie thriller Train to Busan, as an undead beating protective husband, in 2017 and 2018 alone he’s headlined 7 movies. From action thrillers such as this one, The Outlaws, and The Villagers (which shares a plot remarkably similar to Unstoppable, and was released just months earlier), to comedy with The Bros, supernatural outings like Along With the Gods: The Last 49 Days and The Soul-Mate, and family dramas with Champion. Much like it was almost impossible to escape from Hwang Jeong-min a few years ago, audiences are unlikely to be blamed for getting Ma Dong-seok’d out.

However Unstoppable comes with an irresistible premise whichever way you look at it. I doubt there’s any fan of the burly Korean that hasn’t been craving to see him in a straight up action thriller, in which he flexes that distinctive muscle to put the beat down on some unscrupulous characters. So what if the plot sounds similar to one of the worst sequels ever made (thanks Olivier Megaton), if Koreans know how to do anything, then it’s brutal and bloody action. This is perhaps the biggest disappointment with Unstoppable, it’s not that it’s everything Taken 2 should have been, but rather it feels more like The Man from Nowhere-lite.

The debut of director Kim Min-ho, Unstoppable continues to cement Ma Dong-seok as his own genre, much like Jackie Chan and Steven Seagal are their own genre. It wasn’t like this even just a few years ago, with Dong-seok’s filmography filled with a diverse range of roles, however it was his supporting parts in the likes of Kundo: Age of the Rampant that the Korean film industry decided to pick up and cultivate. He’s the big burly bruiser who, beneath his tough exterior, has a heart of gold (and in many cases is actually a bit of a softie). Unstoppable should have been the movie for him to play it straight, but instead Min-ho makes our lead fall back on his usual shtick, here as a one-time gangster now living an honest life working at the local fish market, and married to the woman (Song Ji-hyo, A Frozen Flower) who set him on the straight and narrow.

Dong-seok’s character doesn’t have much business sense, which has resulted in him being scammed several times, the latest of which he breaks the news to his wife over her birthday dinner in an expensive restaurant. Leaving him to dine alone, once home she’s abducted during a home invasion by a group of hooded men, and whisked off into the night. With the police reluctant to help, Dong-seok reverts to his old ‘punch first, ask questions later’ demeanour to start getting some answers, and find his wife. Indeed, this is exactly what he does, but the main issue with Unstoppable is that it’s so content to deliver what’s expected, it forgets to actually make us care about anything, and too often recycles elements that we’ve seen done plenty of times before.

The Man from Nowhere was far from perfect, but at least it was committed to its premise, and followed through, which made it easy to overlook its weaknesses. Unstoppable seems to want to channel The Man from Nowhere, but at the same time wants to play it commercially safe. Considering what we know about the villains – they traffic girls to be prostitutes (the popularity of K-pop gets the blame for this, seriously), harvest other girls organs, and make others have illegal plastic surgery (yes, this one is kind of left of field) – the tone is remarkably light. Dong-seok and his co-worker hire a private detective (Kim Min-jae, The Truth Beneath), who’s a master of disguise and proceeds to wear several of them throughout the runtime for comedic effect. Together they form a bizarre version of the Three Stooges, with the poker faced Dong-seok followed around by the bumbling pair and their broad comic shenanigans.

This is played off against the likes of implied rape, implied beatings, and brutal home invasions. It almost feels like a throwback to the early 2000’s comedies that Korea cranked out, which struck a similarly jarring tone. I still remember watching My Wife is a Gangster, which had a scene of a gangster giving a dog mouth to mouth, followed by one of a pregnant woman being repeatedly kicked in the chest. The feeling was one of uncomfortable bewilderment. Perhaps it’s a cultural thing, but considering the plot of Unstoppable, the very notion of having a character for comedy relief (let alone 2) feels somewhat incomprehensible, and it doesn’t play out any less so onscreen.

Despite everyone’s best efforts, Unstoppable feels like another example from the last couple of years that show a Korean film industry that’s lost its bite. The fact that Min-ho has even cast the same bad guy from The Man from Nowhere, in the form of Kim Sung-oh (Missing You), only increases the obligation to compare the two. One of the highlights of the former was its actions scenes, masterfully placed as punctuation marks throughout the runtime. Because they always had a lot riding on them, the audience’s emotional investment was such that the outcome of the confrontations was more important than the action itself. That’s how it’s done. In Unstoppable it’s kind of half way there, but there’s an overriding feeling that the actions scenes are present mainly because Min-ho thinks the audience want to see Dong-seok punching people, more so than anything relating to plot progression.

That’s not to say the action is a write off. Some of it is derivative (if you’re going to do a one vs many corridor scene in 2018, it better be damn good), however once Dong-seok decides to get down to business his physicality is utilised well. People get thrown around by force, a lot of force, and nobody stands a chance of being conscious after one punch (until the finale, which betrays the logic of everything that’s gone before). We even get two nicely staged one-on-ones, as brief as they may be. The first of which takes place against an energetic taekwondo guy, who moves like he just stepped out of a mid-1990’s Korean gangster flick, and the second of which pits Dong-seok against a guy even bigger than he is. There’s a particular move Dong-seok pulls of in the latter which I daresay will bring a smile to any fight fans face.

Again though, the commercial leanings of Unstoppable ensure proceedings stop short of us getting the full on bad-ass Dong-seok we all want. His clenched fist rampages may result in plenty of collateral damage, but for the most part they remain a largely bloodless affair, and the fate that awaits Sung-oh when Dong-seok confronts him in the finale is frustratingly unsatisfying. While it’s great to see one of the most distinctive faces in Korean cinema enjoy the limelight, it’s also true that you can have too much of a good thing. In a very short space of time we’ve come to know exactly what to expect from a Dong-seok movie, and what type of character he’ll be playing (himself). Maybe it’s time to take a step back from these custom made roles, and go for something that really shows his dark and gritty side.

Until that time though, Unstoppable is best described as a decaffeinated coffee, compared to The Man from Nowhere’s espresso shot. They may both look similar, but only one of them will give you the hit you need.

Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 5.5/10