[HanCinema's Film Review] "A Special Investigator, One-Armed Kim Jongwon" + Full Movie

Shooting a film that focuses on a double agent, through a noir approach always seems like a good idea, since both are quite popular for the mainstream audience. However, Lee Won-se completely messes up his narrative, which quite quickly becomes incomprehensible, resulting in a movie that does not know where it is going. Let us take things from the beginning though.

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Kim Jong-won, the one-armed protagonist who gives his name to the movie, finds himself between two opposing sides. On the one hand, the guerilla communists of the Taebaek Mountains, headed by Lim Choong-ja, whom he has feelings for despite the fact that he has a wife and children, and the Special Investigations Bureau, whose purpose is to eradicate communists, and whose man in charge, Choi Woon-ha, eventually becomes a good friend to him, despite the rather rocky start of their meeting. All the while, a number of other shady characters play the two sides, including Kim Sam-ryong, who mischievous way deem him a rather shady persona. Jong-won has to choose eventually between the two factions, but also between friendship and love.

The main concept and particularly the place Kim Jong-won finds himself in are rather interesting, with the duality of his dilemma giving many opportunities to Lee Won-se to analyze both his characters and the meaning of this plight. However, and with the exception of the ending, which actually moves into intense melodramatic paths once more, he does exactly the opposite, essentially creating a story that begins abruptly, continues in the most confusing way particularly regarding the timeline, and ends up in the most generic way possible. The aforementioned confusion owes much to Yu Jae-won's editing, whose cuts are so abrupt that it is very difficult to understand what or even where it is happening. The one where Jong-won is hiding (?) in a hotel with the mischief that ends up being his comrade (who even indulges in the courtesans there in another completely out of context effort at humor) but eventually find themselves in the mountains, prisoners of the guerillas, is a testament to the issues of the narrative. The role of Choong-ja and the timeline of her actions depicted on screen is also rather confusing, in the end resulting in a story that makes very little sense. Lastly, that the protagonist is one-handed seems to play no role in the story at all, in a concept that borders on being ridiculous.

That being said, the movie has some things working for it. The noir atmosphere in particular, as dictated by the nature of the protagonist, the fact that his final choice is never clear, and the way a number of characters of questionable affiliations appear throughout works quite nicely, as much as the few action scenes. You Young-gil's cinematography is also quite good on occasion, both in the claustrophobic setting of offices and small rooms, and in the open in the mountains, with the potential execution scene being among the most memorable in the movie. Lastly, Park Geun-hyung is occasionally captivating in the protagonist role, with the initial scene where he finds himself trapped and his interactions with Choi Woon-ha being impressive.

Despite these pros however, the general sense "A Special Investigator, One-Armed Kim Jongwon" leaves is bad, to the point that it is difficult to realize who did the worst job: the director, the script writer or the editor. Essentially a viewing only for extreme film buffs.

Review by Panos Kotzathanasis

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"A Special Investigator, One-Armed Kim Jongwon" is directed by Lee Won-se, and features Park Geun-hyung, Woo Yeon-jeong, Lee Chi-woo, Mun Oh-jang, Lee Jong-man, Kim Nam-il. Release date in Korea: 1975/10/11.