Tuesday, March 10, 2015

MOVIE REVIEW: The Technicians (The Con Artists/Criminal Designer)

It's finally here! The movie many Korean entertainment fans have been waiting for is available to international viewers (legally) on DramaFever. Right now the movie has only been released to Premium subscribers, but I am sure that in the near future it will be available to all, so if you're not a subscriber to DramaFever Premium I suggest you practice patience. However, if you do have premium access then head over to DramaFever right now!

Photo Credit: AsianWiki
I can't tell you how excited I was to be able to view this movie. I decided long ago that I was going to career stalk Kim Woo Bin, this was even before I saw him in The Heirs. Out of the 11 productions that Kim Woo Bin has credits for I've managed to see seven including The Technicians. Though Kim Woo Bin is still in the genesis of his acting career he has managed to go from random guy on the runway in Runway Cop to one of the most sought after young actors in South Korea. To make such amazing steps in such a short amount of time is not only a credit to his acting skills, which I think he is still trying to sharpen, but also to his eye for a promising production. 
That being said I think it's time I start talking about the movie. 

Plot: Lee Ji Hyuk (Kim Woo Bin) a master safe cracker and art thief works with a master engineer (Go Chang Suk) and a master hacker (Lee Hyun Woo) in order to steal $150 million dollars from Incheon Customs. The plot should be familiar to anyone who is a fan of heist movies. Since the plot is pretty familiar the movie can be a bit predictable, but I think the writers did a good job at throwing in just the right amount of twists to keep the viewer's interested.

Action: Growing up on American action movies, I am used to high octane action. I live for a sizable amount of explosions, car chases, and gun shooting like most fans of action movies. This movie however, didn't really have that. It did have some action: there were car chase scenes, there was an explosion and there was a lot of  hiding from the cops but nothing that was too extraordinary. There wasn't anything that kept me on the edge my seat freaking out over how much it would cost to rebuild the city of Incheon. Truthfully for this type of plot, a lot of action was needed. In movies with a more complicated plot I think scaled back action makes sense but in this one an epic car chase through the streets lasting much longer than it should have would have been AWESOME!

Acting: I think the highlight of the movie was the three main actors, Kim Woo Bin, Lee Chang Suk, and Lee Hyun Woo. They each delivered their character well and definitely had fan girls swooning with their cheeky smiles and manly eyebrow action. Though I wanted to see the movie for Kim Woo Bin, it was Lee Hyun Woo who really impressed me. I hope that he can continue to build his resume with movies like this. Though he's known to be a total sweetheart and charming cutie pie, he has managed to show his manly side in productions like Secretly Greatly and The Technicians. He totally blew me away in this movie. If you saw Lee Hyun Woo on Running Man then you know how smiley he can be, but he was a real bad ass in this movie and I liked that. 

Aside from the three main actors, there were other stand out performers such as Lim Ju Hwan (Shine or Go Crazy) as the evil henchman. He definitely held his own in this movie and kicked some major butt with his silver taser stick. Also in the movie was Jo Yoon Hee (Lie to Me) as Eun Ha, the romantic interest of Ji Hyuk, and Kim Young Chul (Iris) as President Jo, the ultimate bad guy. The two played their parts well and kept the movie going, providing motivation for Ji Hyuk's actions. 
Photo Credit: AsianWiki
Overall Recommendation: I definitely recommend the movie. It's not going to change your world or anything, but it was enjoyable to watch. It had some good action moments, some good comedic moments, and even a decent hint at romance. Overall I think it did the trick, and if you're looking for a Kim Woo Bin fix before his next drama then this is a good way to go. 

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