Underplayed Gems

Secretly, Greatly (2013)

Secretly, Greatly poster
Original title
은밀하게 위대하게
Directed by
Jang Cheol-soo
Genre
drama film, spy film
Country
South Korea
Runtime
2h 04m
Rated
R18+
Rating
7.0 of 10 from 215 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

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How it feels

Three North Korean spies pose as a village idiot, a rock musician, and a high school student in a South Korean town. They wait for orders while blending into local life. When a regime change in the North happens, their new mission is to kill themselves.

comedicdramaticaction-packedemotionalpoignantintensetragicomicsuspenseful

What happens

Secretly, Greatly (Korean: 은밀하게 위대하게; RR: Eunmilhage widaehage) is a 2013 South Korean action comedy-drama film starring Kim Soo-hyun, Park Ki-woong, and Lee Hyun-woo, who play North Korean spies who infiltrate South Korea as a village idiot, a rock musician, and a high school student, respectively. They assimilate to small-town life while awaiting their orders, until one day, due to a sudden power shift in the North, their mission turns out to be an order to commit suicide. The film is based on the 2010 spy webtoon series Covertness by Hun. Upon its release on 5 June 2013, the film broke several box office records in South Korea: the highest single-day opening for a domestic film, most tickets sold in one day for a domestic film, the biggest opening weekend, the highest-grossing webtoon-based film, and the fastest movie to reach the million, two million, three million, and four million marks in audience number. Movie pundits attribute its success to a large teen audience turnout. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

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