Two cops are searching for a killer. It will be a long search that will last for months.
Nowhere to Hide is one of the most stylish movies I’ve ever seen. The movie is visually a pleasure to look at, and the wild editing gives me goosebumps. I thought Attack the Gas Station was the most energetic and crazy movie I had seen from South Korea, but Nowhere to Run takes the cake!
The opening sequence is one of the wildest and coolest sequences I’ve ever seen in my life. It’s as if Quentin Tarantino had snorted several kilos of cocaine. There’s so much creativity and madness here, it’s fascinating to watch! Especially what we see towards the end of the sequence with the shadows is amazing!
We find one of my favorite actors from South Korea in one of the leading roles, Jang Dong-gun. But he’s not the main focus of the movie. His character is somewhat anonymous. Park Joong-hoon who plays the protagonist, is the one who steals the show. The man walks weirdly, but he has so much energy, and he never gives up. He delivers a brilliant role interpretation!
Nowhere to Hide never gets boring as the cops always end up in strange situations when they are searching for the killer. In these situations, a lot of black humor is used, and it fits perfectly. It feels like watching a funny cartoon.
I love the scene when the cop and killer sneak around and the camera is static. This is real cartoon humor, which is brilliant! You can’t take these characters seriously. They are a bunch of goofballs, and it makes the movie experience so good and fun!
Alongside the visuals and one of the best opening sequences of all time, Nowhere to Hide also has a matching soundtrack that I love. I’ve said it many times, but few countries combine music that fits the scenes we see as well as the South Koreans. They are masters of combining music and images, and they have given me some amazing moments that I will always remember. They also love the song Holiday by Bee Gees, which is played quite early in the movie. The soundtrack is full of energy, and you get pumped up by the images you see on the screen combined with the aggressive soundtrack.
The only negative thing is that the movie loses a lot of the wild energy it has had in the first two acts. It never manages to switch to a higher gear in the third act, which one expects when the killer and the cop will have their big and final showdown.
This is also a movie that divides the audience in two. Nowhere To Hide feels like an experimental movie that doesn’t have the best story, and you never get to know these cartoon characters. This is an experience where the director experiments a lot, and he succeeds mostly in my eyes. There’s a lot to take in when watching Nowhere to Hide, but it also makes Nowhere to Hide a unique experience.
Nowhere to Hide is a great movie that has it all. The actors are on fire, it’s visually beautiful, the camera work is fantastic, it has wild and energetic editing, and the humor and the awesome soundtrack will rock your socks off. All of this combined makes Nowhere to Hide a unique movie experience!