Product Description

From Kwak Kyung-Taek, director of Champion and the record-breaking Korean box office smash, Friend , comes TYPHOON, an ambitious and technically impressive action-thriller that effectively takes on Hollywood at its own game. The biggest-budgeted South Korean movie ever made, boasting superlative production values and locations ranging from Korea and Russia to Thailand, TYPHOON combines themes and action sequences reminiscent of John Woo's best work with the kind of cinematic thrills and pyrotechnics usually associated with the high concept blockbusters of Michael Bay and Jerry Bruckheimer.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8380 in DVD
• Released on: 2007-08-20
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Formats: Box set, Collector's Edition, PAL
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 108 minutes

Synopsis
Hailing from South Korea, director Kyung-Taek Kwak (FRIEND) brings some explosive subject matter to the silver screen with TYPHOON. Kwak follows in the tradition of directors such as John Woo (HARD BOILED) and Takashi Miike (DEAD OR ALIVE), molding a fast-paced action thriller that manages to divide its time between visceral set pieces and intriguing plot developments. Sin (Jang Dong-Gun) is from North Korea and still feels the effects of his parents' slaying at the hands of brutal South Korean tormentors, who refused to allow Sin's family to move into the country when he was a kid. Sin plans to destroy both North and South Korea in the ultimate act of vengeance, and his acquisition of some potentially deadly nuclear waste helps further his maniacal dreams. Jang Se-jong (Jung-Jae Lee) is a South Korean native whose naval training is called upon when he is given the task of tackling Sin, and director Kwak draws on a strong supporting cast to act out some explosive and bloody battles as the two men go head-to-head. Audiences will surely revel in the on-screen pyrotechnics and death-defying stunt work that barely lets up from start to finish.

Customer Reviews

Oh, that's much better!
Given that this new Region 2 release is a good 16 minutes shorter than the Korean original, I approached it with some trepidation wondering if key scenes had been butchered, the plot had been relegated to the bin, the usual worries. Not so, in fact what we have her is a more slick, stylish version that, for once, benefits from the streamlining and rejigging brought to bear by the editor's scissors. The original, now, seems a little confusing, what with flashbacks in curious places - at the very end, when all the drama's been put to bed for one - and scenes that are so clearly there to pad the running time out as long as possible. Lumpy might be the best way to describe it.

Ordinarily, I'd always recommend the original version of a film but, this time, I'd say you'd be making a safe choice buying this one.

absolutely top notch action thriller
When you read the plot synopsis for Typhoon, you may find yourself being put of by the fact that it sounds like something from the Hollywood school of dumb action movies, but if you make this mistake you would miss one of the finest action movies that this reviewer has seen in a long, long time.
The dangerous and highly motivated Sin (Jang Dong Gun) hijacks a secret cargo of nuclear detonators at sea, with the help of his merciless band of pirates. The detonators are being secretly shipped by the American defence department so as not to raise the hackles of Russia, China, Japan or either North and South Korea, and were to be used as leverage in the current Asian Pacific brinksmanship that sees the aforementioned countries vying for domination of this sensitive area. Needless to say, the South Koreans learn of this before the Americans can cover it up, and set their own man on Sin's trail, super skilled Naval Intelligence officer Jang (Jung Jae Lee). Jang learns that Sin intends to use the detonators as part of a plot to destroy both North and South Korea, for reasons that become plain later in the movie in a series of brutal and heartbreaking flashbacks. So we have a cat and mouse game played out across the Asian Pacific rim as these two men clash in a series of spectacular set pieces before the obvious final showdown.
So far, so good, and you could be forgiven for thinking so what. But this is more than another lazy Hollywood style action thriller in the Jack Ryan/ James Bond mould. The two leads turn in good performances, giving their characters a certain sense of believability (although given the subject of the film, not totally believable), and the film moves along at a cracking pace, with some terrific (and I do mean terrific) action set pieces. Write/director Kyung Taek Kwak handles the proceedings well, and the film rarely pauses for breath as the action zooms around the Pacific Rim. The film looks great, and particular credit must go to the editor Simon K Park who manages to give even the most boring piece of exposition zing and zip. The action clearly owes a great deal to the stylised action of John Woo, and the film has all the polish of a Jerry Bruckheimer film (and I mean that in a good way). All in all, a cracking action thriller that actually manages to have good characters, a good script and great action all in the one tidy package.

Classier than the Jack Ryan / Tom Clancy film series
Typhoon's plot synopsis reads like one of them bad action novels written by an ex-special forces operative, but the executive elevates it well abave this to produce a film that runs a long at a rate of notes with high quality action and a plot that isn't too hokey.

Well worth sitting down and watching with a bag of popcorn on a big screen TV. Typhoon's main protagonist is also more human than Daniel Craig's Bond.