NOWHERE TO HIDE (1999), dir. Myung-Se Lee

SITE ARCHIVE! (REGULARLY UPDATED)

Overall rating: *** (out of ****)

Imagine “The French Connection” with Wong Kar-Wai and such luminaries of Japanese cinema as Seijun Suzuki and Shohei Imamura at the helm, and you’d end up with something like “Nowhere to Hide.” Although frequently over-the-top, this Korean-language thriller’s highly-stylized nature is what makes it so unique, even if one can never take it very seriously. Meanwhile, it features a terrific performance by Joong-Hoon Park as a violent slob of a cop in the Popeye Doyle tradition.

The slaying of a gangland leader puts the Homicide Division’s best detectives, Woo (Joong-Hoon) and Kim (Dong-Kun Jang), on the trail of an assassin named Sungmin (Sung-Kee Ahn). As one might expect, the two cops are yin and yang: Kim is a conventionally-handsome, introspective family man, while Woo is a blustery, mean-tempered bear of a cop whose first instinct is usually force. But saying he’s tough would be an understatement. In the film’s opening montage, Woo takes on an entire gang of hoods in a warehouse single-handedly, displaying an agility that would make Sammo Hung nod in recognition.

Writer/director Lee liberally cuts back-and forth from that pitched fight to Kim and the others from the Homicide Division, who strut around carrying metal pipes, which they use to check the air in criminals’ heads. They resemble a pack of vigilantes more than police, and that, the filmmakers seem to argue, is the reason they’re so effective at their jobs. Like many classic cop movies, success in “Nowhere to Hide” requires tossing out the proverbial rulebook and resorting to excesses like torture and beatings; however, there are blackly-humorous touches that take some sting out of the brutality (at one point, the entire division decides to beat up on a suspect, but in their unbridled enthusiasm, they trash their headquarters, too).

The subject matter has the potential to be thought-provoking, but the story occasionally gets lost amidst the hyperactive visuals. “Nowhere to Hide’s” first third is a seemingly-non-stop tumult of freeze frames, slow-motion, punk rock guitar riffs and sound-mixing straight out of a spaghetti Western. Now don’t get me wrong; the blitzkrieg of sight and sound does get the adrenaline pumping to a certain extent, which is probably Lee’s intent. My only criticism is it doesn’t ebb and flow the way, say, Kar-Wai’s equally-playful “Fallen Angels” does; rather, it talks in a steady stream of exclamation points as a Michael Bay flick might.

Luckily, once the central investigation kicks in, the visual excesses seem appropriate, what with the lengths Woo, Kim, and the others are willing to go to collar their killer. Moreover, especially during the second half, Lee actually seems to tone things down, as if realizing the performances and plot were now sufficient to maintaining his audience’s attention. The movie continues to be inventive, albeit in ways film buffs may find derivative: the occasional emphasis on powerful images over continuity, a la Suzuki; voyeuristic first-person tracking shots similar to Imamura.

Although “Nowhere to Hide” concerns the Homicide Division as opposed to narcotics, like “The French Connection,” the plot involves surveillance and pursuit (including a memorable set piece involving a train) and cops who play close to the edge. Detective Woo has the same distinctive hat-wear and smile suggesting a punch to the face that Gene Hackman packed, and once the film races to its conclusion, it leans more heavily on Joong-Hoon, who conveys surprising depths to this unapologetic thug. As he explains to a beautiful co-conspirator (Ji-Woo Choi) of Sugmin’s whom they hope to bring around to their side, he knows his job, and that’s nailing the bad guy by any means necessary.

Woo is so convincing at not being self-delusional that the denouement – one of those “waiting by the side of the road, hoping for the woman whose boyfriend you just served justice to will give you the time of day” shots, seemingly borrowed from “The Third Man” – is rather poignant.