Yaksha: Ruthless Operations
Nicknamed after a human-devouring spirit, the ruthless leader of an overseas black ops team takes up a dangerous mission in a city riddled with spies.
- Released: 2022-04-08
- Runtime: 125 minutes
- Genre: Action, Adventure, Crime
- Stars: Sol Kyung-gu, Park Hae-soo, Hiroyuki Ikeuchi, Yang Dong-geun, Lee El, Song Jae-rim, Jinyoung, Lee Soo-kyung, Jin Kyung, Jin Seo-yeon, Choi Won-young, Yao Yi Ti, Ji E-su, Woozi, Yoo Jung-ho
- Director: Na Hyun
Comments
- divemabini - 23 November 2023
Gritty, and honestly pretty good.
First, the bad: In typical Korean fashion, the final act, and the last battle in particular, are so ridiculously cartoony and poorly executed that the groans you'll utter detract from a thrilling ride up to that point. If you think James Bond movies are filled with gratuitous monologues, well this movie's final 15 minutes put those movies to shame. Then, the hesitancy to pull the trigger and end the threat is completely out of place given the background and motivations of the characters to that point. Yes, it is to set up the "thrilling" reveal, but it is so corny and cringy that you're left with a bad taste in your mouth.
Up to that point, a fun ride with some really interesting supporting characters. It really is a shame that it ends on such a lame "Boss Battle" note. - silicontourist - 10 May 2022
A Film That Is Closer To The Real World Callous, Ruthless And Utter Inhuman Cruelty Of Espionage!
I loved this film. It makes western spies like James Bond, Mission Impossible and Jack Ryan look like douche-bags; though Jason Bourne would be more than capable of holding his own in this ruthless world 😄
The tale opens with a mole/traitor being apprehended by a South Korean spy/secret agent in a Hong Kong car-park. However! It is but a brief setting to lay down information for what you find out later on in the film; after it moves on 4 years to the North-Eastern Chinese city of Shenyang...that just so happens to have the most spies concentrated in one place than anywhere else in the world (due to its global positioning of being right on North Korea's border).
Another reviewer said they did not think this would get a showing in China. I beg to differ, as anyone with an interest in Chinese culture, history and affairs knows these days that China has long been notorious for world wide espionage; it would do them no good to stop it being shown!
This is an all action fast paced film of 2 hours worth of corruption, lies, deceit, double agents, murders, subterfuge and traitorous moles. All of it emanating from 4 factions of spies; Chinese, Japanese, North Koreans and South Koreans who are all searching for a list of spies and double agents working for Japan...hardly a frame goes by without someone being murdered. I think this is the first film I have watched that I really hated every single character because, they are all such horrible, cold, heartless, brutal and low life thugs. Its exactly what makes the actors so good in their roles and exactly what is needed to portray how much of a disgusting job espionage is (in the last couple of decades, and more, we have heard what North Korea and Russia etc have done to people living as asylum seekers, defectors, dissidents or people who spoke out against the true actions perpetrated in said countries ).
What we see here is pure entertainment and it does the job superbly; though I would say that what is seen here is only an introduction to the harshness of the world of spies...its very likely fifty times worse.
If James Bond was in this film, looking for the list, he would have been beaten down, chewed up and killed in the first 20 minutes of his appearance; he wouldn't be tough enough or have the fighting skills to stay alive!
Well worth the viewing if you just want a non stop action thriller!
