Set in 1920's Japanese occupied Korea, a Korean police captain who works for the oppressors is set the task of infiltrating a resistance group.
The Age of Shadows is a period spy film which educated me on some matters I hitherto did not know anything about regarding Korean history. It is a very solid bit of film-making with strong production values evident throughout. The look of the film faultlessly captures the era and the colour scheme has a slightly sepia tinged look which suggested the past pretty effectively. It is a film which is pretty plot-driven but it also focuses on the conflict between duty, loyalty and patriotism. It is essentially a thriller though and it is certainly successfully suspenseful quite often, with an extended sequence on-board a train particularly well done in this regard. It is also very brutal at times too, especially in the scenes in the Japanese torture chamber which had me actively cringing at the atrocities played out on screen. It is maybe a little too standard in approach to provide much in the way of surprises but it still nevertheless delivers its material very well and it is additionally a good thing to see a thriller with a topic which hasn't been covered too often. Definitely worth watching.
The Age of Shadows is a period spy film which educated me on some matters I hitherto did not know anything about regarding Korean history. It is a very solid bit of film-making with strong production values evident throughout. The look of the film faultlessly captures the era and the colour scheme has a slightly sepia tinged look which suggested the past pretty effectively. It is a film which is pretty plot-driven but it also focuses on the conflict between duty, loyalty and patriotism. It is essentially a thriller though and it is certainly successfully suspenseful quite often, with an extended sequence on-board a train particularly well done in this regard. It is also very brutal at times too, especially in the scenes in the Japanese torture chamber which had me actively cringing at the atrocities played out on screen. It is maybe a little too standard in approach to provide much in the way of surprises but it still nevertheless delivers its material very well and it is additionally a good thing to see a thriller with a topic which hasn't been covered too often. Definitely worth watching.