Silmido

Aroview: Korean Cold War thriller which takes the true scandal of how a team of gangsters and death-row criminals were recruited in 1968 as part of a secret plot to assassinate the North Korean leader, Kim Il-Sung.

Although filmed with 'uneven inspiration', this snowballs its plot with some surprising twists and bare-knuckle action. If finally it can't quite convey its bizarre story with the epic qualities it demands, it hardly shortchanges on the brutal action quotient.

NZ International Film Festival 2004