Korean defection occurs so often that there’s a Wikipedia page on the subject, as well as quite a few movies over the years. I’m sure some of those escapees have been soldiers who’ve had enough of their government’s shenanigans to make a run for the border, and the inherent peril of such a journey would make an ideal action drama.
But Escape manages to waste its sure-fire premise. It begins well enough, with North Korean soldier Lim Gyu-Nam (Lee Je-hoon) preparing to defect to the South once he’s discharged. He’s been mapping out the locations of all the landmines between his base (near the Demilitarized Zone) and the border. Another soldier, Kim Dong-hyuk (Hong Xa-bin), is desperate to defect as well, so much so that he attempts escape on his own, but Lim tries to convince him to wait. Unfortunately, both are caught and sentenced to death.
Luckily for Lim, childhood friend Lee Hyun-sang (Koo Kyo-hwan) is a high-ranking officer who intervenes, declaring Lim a hero for catching a defector, then giving him a promotion and transfer. However, Lim still wants to defect and uses his new position to not-only save Kim, but retrieve his map of the landmines. Once they go on the run, Lee becomes obsessed with hunting-down and killing them.
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| "I told you to gas it up before we left." |
As for the action…the film takes too long to get things rolling, and when it finally does, we’re expected to swallow some glaring implausibilities and lapses in logic. Despite being armed with machine guns, Lee’s squads are worse shots than Imperial Stormtroopers, unable to hit one guy escaping on foot. And speaking of Star Wars, North Korea is suddenly the tiniest nation on Earth, with Lee repeatedly and instantaneously able to find Lim, no matter how many miles separate them at any given time (or maybe he’s mastered teleportation).
Escape is a forgettable, underwhelming film that offers little beyond the kind of generic time killers regularly served up on Netflix. Good performances help, but considering the real-world relevance of the basic concept, I expected a little more than static characters and dubious action sequences. Ultimately, this is a missed opportunity.
EXTRA KIBBLES
FEATURETTES - Making Of; Character Trailer
MOVIE TRAILER - With Commentary
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