Secret Reunion (2010)

I only watched this movie because of Kang Dong Won, and boy was I NOT disappointed. Although this is a 'spy thriller' type movie, it also has some laugh-out-loud comedic moments for Song Kang Ho's character, and for the pair together.

This movie really is about both friendship and brotherhood. I am no expert on North-South relations, so I don't know how realistic it has been portrayed through the events in this movie, but I think it has been set up very well to show how both characters dealt with the conflicting loyalties they felt to friend and country.

The pacing of the movie is done very, very well. We are thrown right smack in the early stages of an operation, which escalates quickly. This quickly drew me into the movie and left me hungry to know what would happen next. The next part of the movie afterwards was slower in pace but was full of both funny and exciting moments, and left me emotionally invested in the friendship between the two main characters, followed by the last third of the movie where the pace picked up and left me on the edge of the seat. The ending was well-written.

I am surprised that I have not heard more buzz about this movie. This is a must-watch!

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I wrote this for a paper for my korean film class.


Secret Reunion, or Blood Brothers, or Eui Hyeong je, is a 2010 South Korean spy thriller movie directed by Jang Hoon, it was a very high grossing film for that year. It was released in february and starred Song Kang-ho and Kang Dong-won.
The story starts with Agent Lee Han-Gyo (Song Kang-ho) an NIS agent (National INtelligence Service) who becames an escape goat for an assassination attempt that was of a North Korean dissident. The sleeper cell responsible includes Ji-won (Kang Dong-won) who for certain reasons gets marked as a traitor when the mission wasn't pulled exactly as planned. These two characters meet up 6 years later, with a little knowledge of each other, but still suspicisions.
A major themes of the movie is brotherly love, a confucian ideal of the time. The two main characters even though enemies become friends by spending time together and at the end, their friendship helps them come together to help beat another traitor.
Another central theme of the movie is the humanization of the North Koreans. Ji-won is a North Korean, who has family back in North Korea. He has a wife and a child that he loves very much, and misses. After he has been marked as a traitor, you find out that he is paying to have his family moved over to South Korea, because if they stay they are in danger due to his status. This humanization of his feelings toward his family, is also another key confucist ideal - family bonds.
*spoilers removed*
The two main characters Ji-won and Lee, have their own issues to deal with, and being in the situation of living together, they are forced to deal with the others issues, they both suspect they are still in the 'business' but neither is completely in it. They see each other as tools, a way to help themselves and their family issues. Lee is after money so that he can buy a house, so that his wife and child will come back to him. Ji-win, you don't find out till later, is afte rmoney to get his family over the border. In a sense they both don't really seem to care about their country, other than that its where they live, or where their families are; all they want is their families to be whole again. An interesting thing about this is that Agent Lee, after he is released from duty, his wife and child leave him, and he becomes a slop. It was interesting to make the South Korean character be de-humanized, while the North Korean - Ji-won, is more human. In one scene Lee and Ji-won are on a case, they have become PI (in a sense), and they are trying to find runaway mail-order brides for their clients. They find this girl and catch her, Lee handcuffs her to the car and Ji-won questions his humanity; he forces Lee to unlock the handcuffs because it isn't "absolutely neccessary" and that it is "torture" she can't escape while the car is running anyways. This is very humane of him. In another case They have caught this one girl, a vietnamese who has run away, and find out that the client beats her; she asks to see her sister one last time, and they take her there, and in th end they leave her with her sister, and just walk away. As there time grows and grows together the humanity of the north rubbed of on the capitalist greed of the south.
All in all this is a very great movie, definetly 5/5 stars. Its is an action-thriller and I can see why it was a top grossing movie of the year. I fangirled a little over Kang Dong-won (Ji-won) because I had seen him in a few movies and a drama before, and after a little research I found out that Kango Ho is a top actor, and I now want to watch other movies he is in.

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