Film Illiterate, wherein the proprietor records movies seen, and sporadic progress through assorted lists of the "best". Originally started after regretfully renting something forgettable for the third time. I've forgotten what, but never again! A tedious endeavour since 2005. Hello. 🙂
South Korean agent Lee Han-kyu (Song Kang-ho) and North Korean spy Song Ji-won (Kang Dong-won) meet for the first time during an arrest operation -- bungling it into a massacre loses Lee his job. Six years later they are reunited: now a private detective, Lee offers Song a job in hopes of using him to uncover the rest of his spy ring; Song accepts in hopes of helping his wife and child escape the North.
Though bookended by two smart, tense action sequences, the centre mass of the film is part comedy -- the sort you would expect from two spies pursuing opposing agendas in the same studio apartment -- and part drama; Lee does well as a sad old cop clinging to past glories, and Kang is convincingly torn between loyalty to his home country and to his own moral compass. The whole thing is set to a political backdrop of North Korean nuclear tests and illegal Vietnamese immigrants: life isn't perfect on either side of the border.
Not in the same league as JSA, but good entertainment with surprising depth.