Enough with the facts, onto the review! The plot of The Thieves is about a group of robbers, Popie (Lee Jung Jae), Yenicall (Gianna Jun), Chewingum (Kim Hae Sook) and Zampano (Kim Soo Hyun) from Korea who decide to follow the lead of ex-colleague Macao Park to pull off a major heist in Hong Kong. In Hong Kong the team become acquainted with another group of thieves. The distrust between the two groups causes tension. The stakes are high as the 10 thieves try to steal the 'Tear of Sun' which is worth $20 million dollars but every one has their own agendas and no one can be trusted.
Now in all honesty, I haven't seen Ocean's 11 but from what I've read, the similarities are clear in as much as both films feature a group of thieves trying to pull off an extraordinarily intricate heist. However beyond that the two films seem very different to me. Whilst Ocean's 11 is about Daniel's talented team pulling off an amazing robbery using everyone's skills to the best of their abilities. Sure Daniel keeps his motives a secret, but it's no biggie. On the other hand The Thieves focuses more on the deception and betrayal of various members of the group. There's double-crossing and back stabbing all the way. In fact, even the Producer says he wasn't consciously making a film similar to Ocean's 11 claiming that the action movie was 'Invested with more emotion.'. I'd say that the difference is explained clearly by Kim Yoon Seok: 'In The Thieves, we are all over the place, all with our own faults. But I think that you will see through the friendships and love in the film, our unique emotional developments will show through.'
I think it's the treachery that makes the film so good! If it was just an action packed film about a robbery I think I would become very bored, very quickly. So many unexpected plot twists! Unfortunately, I feel they over complicated the plot sometimes. I got there in the end, but it was incredibly hard to keep up with all the twists and turns. Especially when they start throwing in flashbacks within flashbacks with out giving any inclination of the date. It was really confusing! The other thing I don't get is the films title as an 'action comedy'. Sure it has some funny gags but I couldn't say it was more than amusing. Certainly not funny enough to count as a comedy!
But all this betrayal would be for naught if it weren't for the brilliant characters! As Yoon Seok says, they all have their own flaws and they all show development and growth. My favorite is easily Yenicall because not only is Gianna Jun a beautiful character but she gives her character so much personality! At first you might be fooled into thinking that Yenicall is the pretty airhead character, only there to seduce men with her outward appearance. However she quickly proves that wrong, her strength is apparent in how she's uses the wires and she also shows a lot of cunning through out the movie. But it's her attitude that I love, her total arrogance and nonchalance. Yenicall's good looks do not make her objectified because she uses them to her own advantage which I think is the best thing for attractive female characters to do! Obviously, her arrogance is also her flaw and it makes her a target of all the other female thieves but the fact that her fault and strength are one in the same is just another wonderful thing about her. Of course, the other characters are all lovely too, but I won't bore you buy giving a detailed analysis on each!
I also want to give a nod of appreciation to all the actors who had to speak in a foreign language for this film. During the two hours the actors speak Korean, Chinese, Japanese and English, and although I obviously can't speak for the fluency of their Chinese or Japanese I can say for a fact that they wowed me with their English!
All things considered, this is a good film! It's not the sort of thing I get excited but there's exciting characters and some really stunning fight scenes. The Plot is unpredictable in a good way and it's nice to see a movie with no good characters, it's much more fun when you don't have to worry about morals. Also, the ending is perfect! Nothing like what I had anticipated! I had problems because there are so many characters and with all their unannounced flashbacks I regularly got a confused but I reckon it'd be easier on the second run. I might even find some clever hints if I watch it again! So I would agree with the majority that this is an awesome, action-packed adventure that deserves attention.
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