Have you seriously not watched this yet?

This film has made its way into my top 3 actual favorite films, and I have been struggling over this post for days, trying to put my finger on why. I suspect that, in the end, it's a case of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts.

Plot-wise, there's nothing terribly original. But the characters and the acting are what really stand out for me. Everyone (suspension of disbelief firmly in place) actually seems like a real person, with real motivations. And I cannot get enough of that fucking bromance; I could watch Cha Tae-sik and Ramrowan fight and exchange looks all day long.

I think the film works especially well since the titular Man from Nowhere's objective scales - in saving one particular child from the organ harvesters, he's also saving other children. It's a comment on Korea's history of unwanted children. It's the personal writ large.

And the action sequences...oh, the action sequences. They're the stuff that dreams are made of.