Sonic Cinema

Sounds, Visions and Insights by Brian Skutle

Escape

Grade : B- Year : 2025 Director : Lee Jong-pil Running Time : 1hr 34min Genre : , , ,
Movie review score
B-

It’s always interesting to see how foreign filmmakers work with well-worn American cinema tropes. Of course, there is truth to the idea that there are only a handful of stories to be told in dramatic fiction; it’s how the storytellers find ways to turn those stories into something compelling that determines whether they succeed or not. With “Escape,” director Lee Jong-pil is giving us a variation on the prison break narrative, only this time, with someone fleeing an authoritarian regime, hoping to begin a life where they are free to make mistakes. Will leaving be one of them?

The main focus of the film is Lim Kyu-nam (Lee Je-hoon), a Sergeant in the North Korean army who is at the end of his decade of mandatory service. But being finished with his service is not enough for him; he needs to stake a life in South Korea, where friends and family awaits. Gradually, he was worked his way through a literal minefield to find the safest route to the Military Demarcation Line. Now, it is time to make a break for it, but the situation changes for he and his comrade, Kim Dong-hyuk (Hong Xa-bin), and they must improvise from there.

Even though the film is a short 94 minutes in length, there are times when “Escape” just doesn’t really feel like it has the sort of momentum it should. And once it introduces Field Officer Li Hyun-sang (Koo Kyo-hwan) into the story- the Gerard to Lim’s Richard Kimble, if you will- we start to get some added tension as it becomes a “hunter vs. hunted” dynamic, albeit one that is precipitated not on a sense of morality in the choice to leave, but the duty to country. For Li, even though Lim has done his time in the military, he still has a responsibility to his country. But as Lim tells him, “Fear a meaningless life, not death itself.” For him, North Korea does not offer life or choice, but fealty to the nation, even if it goes against our values. The moral quandaries of Lim’s choice- and Li’s pursuit- are the most intriguing part of the film, even more so that the chase itself. The problem is “Escape” doesn’t allow the action and morality of the film coalesce in a satisfying way until the very end, when Li is all that stands in Lim’s way to getting the freedom he’s worked for. The ending of this film is fantastic in how it codifies its ideas, but it doesn’t do enough before it to make this film as impactful as it could have been.

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