Underplayed Gems

Shiri (1999)

Shiri poster
Original title
쉬리
Directed by
Kang Je-gyu
Genre
drama film, action film, spy film, thriller film
Country
South Korea
Runtime
2h 05m
Rated
R
Rating
6.4 of 10 from 191 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

More films like thisWatch the trailer

or watch the trailer on YouTube

How it feels

A South Korean special agent hunts for a North Korean spy and assassin in Seoul. The mission becomes personal as he deals with threats to his country and his relationships.

tenseaction-packedmelodramaticpatrioticfast-pacedseriousbombasticsuspenseful

What happens

Shiri (Korean: 쉬리; RR: Swiri) is a 1999 South Korean action spy film, written and directed by Kang Je-gyu. It was the first Hollywood-style big-budget blockbuster to be produced in the new Korean film industry (i.e. after Korea's major economic boom in the late 1990s). Created as a deliberate homage to the "high-octane" action film made popular by Hollywood through the 1980s, it also contained a story that draws on strong Korean national sentiment to fuel its drama. Much of the film's visual style is shared with that of Asian action cinema, particularly Hong Kong action cinema such as John Woo, Tsui Hark, Ringo Lam, and the relentless pace of the second unit directors, like Vic Armstrong and Guy Hamilton, in the James Bond films. The film was released under the name Shiri outside of South Korea; in South Korea the title was spelled Swiri. The name refers to Coreoleuciscus splendidus, a fish found in Korean fresh-water streams. At one point in the film antagonist Park Mu-young has a monologue wherein he describes how the waters from both North and South Korea flow freely together, and how the fish can be found in either water without knowing to which it belongs. This ties into the film's ambitions to be the first major-release film to directly address the still-thorny issue of Korean reunification. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

This page is from Underplayed Gems. Not quite it? You can browse by genre, country and year, or take this one into the 3D catalogue and ask the Catbot for something closer.