The Angel Without, The Devil Within (2022)

Watched for Park Jinyoung but stayed for Sol Kyung-gu

First of all, it’s a great movie and it has what most people like to watch in a action movie. Some small comedy relief parts and a lot of great sequences of action. The storyline makes sense and there’s no holes in it for my point of view since I didn’t have any questions about what was delivered in general. The acting was great and the CGI too, even though that one scene of the rats made me question a little if it was that good (lol).

I’m sure you wouldn’t like it if you don’t like those spy sequences movies that hollywood produces all the time because this is exactly what it is with the plus that it’s korean not american. Since i’m into those i actually enjoyed watching this. And it’s also the type of movie I would recommend my parents to watch since they’re so into action movies and this is a good one.

I should add that you shouldn’t really expect much more than the plot about spies for this story since they don’t really get into any other stuff than this, even if there are some dialogues about decency and justice.

I was surprised by how much i liked Kyung-gu’s character. Both actor and character are very charismatic to me in their own way, as someone who was looking forward for this because of jinyoung that was a pleasant surprise!

and btw park jinyoung and park haesoo both are hot so yeah

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Expressive Action In Neon Lights

Korean Action Movies are impressive in their visual components, it´s mostly the lack of subtleties in a catchy plot that causes movies to not gain attention/ not be seen as a masterpiece. "Yaksha" does not necessarily have any crucial parts that bothered me, except for the confusing and a bit insufficiently precise written multinational mix-up. I very much enjoyed watching Park Hae Soo in another main role. The performance of the entire cast was admirable, especially the well-portrayed/displayed tension between the very different members of the group. However, not only the cast has delivered an impressive piece of work, thus judging from the filming and editing quality, the responsible crew was consisting of a mainly reliable and talented crew. After all, "Yaksha" is a nice pick for an adventurous movie night but nothing I´d rewatch.

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Pleasantly surprised!

I don’t really like action/ spy films like this but I actually really enjoyed this film! I thought the story was interesting and I liked how all the characters interacted with each other. It is also such a visually pleasing film, every shot looked so nice, especially the lighting. The acting was all great just as I expected.

Honestly this film could work as a stand-alone-film but if my suspicions are correct and they’ve planned/ are planning sequels then I’d definitely give them a watch and I’m interested to see how they would turn out.

Pleasantly surprised!

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Multinational direction mixed bag

When a movie seeks for a multinational direction, it doesn't always produces effective results, and this movie has not escaped the fate of being sluggish in it. South Koreans hunting for North Koreans and at the end having a war with Japanese all done inside of China, this mixed bag couldn't get any weirder. However the main problem with this movie is how things are always getting done miraculously and in favor of them without much explanations. It all feels like the writers tried too hard to impress the audience out of their wild imaginations of how an international threat would be, which makes it very hard to believe how it could all happen that way.

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Cast in action is worth it!

The cast is the main reason, I've been waiting for this movie for a long time and couldn't wait to watch it the moment it came out. Well, I was kinda disappointed but enjoyed it nonetheless.

Story:

Tbh, the story is a mess. They've touched on a wide and complex topic, added in too much only to deliver a portion of it. The first half was a complete mess and I had a difficult time making sense of the story while it straightened out in the second half.
Ji Kang In operates a black team in China and our main lead, Han Ji Hoon is sent there to make a report on him. Well, imagine an office guy stepping into the world of spies and war. He has no choice but to become a part of the team and gets dragged on their missions while making sense of what's going on.
What I didn't like about the story is, that it's too predictable. This pretty much killed all the thrill one can feel in such movies. A couple of twists could've been nice despite the story being too simple.

Acting:

With Park Hae Soo, Lee El, Song Jae Rim and Jinyoung (these are the only familiar faces in this movie for me =D ) in an action movie, how can the acting not be great? They're best suited for such films, especially JaeRim!

Rewatch value:

Nah, not going to watch because the story is all over the place and the action scenes are the only ones worth watching which are too short as well. Yeah...

Conclusion:

If you're up for good action films, do watch it. But be prepared for the story to make a mush of your brain in the first half of the movie!

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Good action movie!

Pretty good movie, you get what you're here for: action, the occasional joke, more action. The movie is fast paced, not too packed either though, so you actually have small rooms to breathe. Initially interested because of Jinyoung, was pretty happy to see the rest of the cast since they're all pretty much faves. Definitely worth the watch, hoping for a potential 2nd movie (not too much tho lol). For those who prefer dubbed versions or who want to enjoy the movie with family non used to subbed movies, I know there are a few dubs though didn't check the entire list. Most noticeable to me were the English and French ones.

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Good watch, no surprises

Good watch, solid story. It's a bit standard, with mega explosions, biased bullets and macho men and women. But there is an delicateness to the story that deals with border espionage between N-Korea and the bordering countries that I found intriguing. Everyone has their own reasons for being in the place they are, and this is mostly outside of their own doing. The catchphrase in this movie is "I had no choice!"

The actors all give a great performance, however the lead seems a bit on the autopilot at times. But its the sort of movie that doesn't really suffer from that so we'll forgive him for it. The other lead, the prosecutor, seems more invested and gives a great performance. There were some plot-lines that could have done with some more attention, but that's just me who is usually not very much into these sort of movies. There were a lot of moments where my husband and I fist-bumped when one of the bad guys got what they deserved.

It all ends well after a significant body-count and the bad guys are gone. The last scene unveils that this will be the start of a beautiful friendship. Will watch a next installment if it comes out.

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Justice served

"Justice has to be preserved by any means necessary."

This movie is about a prosecutor being sent to Shenyang to investigate the Korean team but he ends up in the middle of a war between Sokor, Nokor and Japanese spies.

Sol Kyung Gu is so cool in this movie while Haesu's straight laced character started off as clueless (how many times was he fooled throughout the movie?). But he later learns and joins hands with Yaksha to defeat the enemy. The story was confusing because we didnt exactly know what was happening but it all makes sense later on.

The betrayals were predictable, same with using chemical factory as the final scene so they can blow up the factory 😆. But still enjoyed watching.

Rating: 8/10

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I watched this movie for Park Jin Young who played a supporting part in this movie - and who was as awesome as always, of course. And to watch him kick butt and be all ruthless and smart and cunning was a pleasure, too, of course.

I loved the action and Yaksha's core team, their loyalty to him - but I simply couldn't stand Prosecutor Han aka Nike. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't because of his need to uphold the law, not at all. But I hated that he behaved like a bull in a china shop once he joined the team in the field, getting them almost killed time and time again. When I'm dropped into a situation I don't know anything about, I don't behave like an arrogant power hungry know-it-all. I keep my trap shut and follow the lead of those who actually do know what's going on. He irked me so badly!

But I did love the ending, the scenes while the credits were rolling. That was awesome. And if there's a sequel - which is quite uncertain now, considering Netflix's current money trouble - I will watch it because I want to see Yaksha's team again!

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