Ransomed
South Korea | Korean, Arabic, English subtitles
2023 | 132 Minutes
Director: Kim Seong-hun
Cast: Ha Jung-woo, Ju Ji-hoon, Kim Eung-so, Park Hyuk-kwon
Early on in the programming, the Fantasia festival had been running a movie trailer for Ransomed and it had peeked my interest quite a bit. In the more than two decades that I have been attending Fantasia festival, I have learned a few things; one of them is to keep an eye on the TBA (To Be Announced) slots in the program. There be gold in those slots.
Based on an incredible true story, Ransomed is a gripping historical thriller that puts its audience on a permanent state of high alert, plunges into post-war Lebanon through striking urban and wilderness images and impeccable historical reconstruction.
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The year is 1987. Min-jun, a careerist civil servant working for the Middle East division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and dreams of a transfer to the United States, finds himself deeply embittered by his lack of upward motion in his job. One evening, he receives a cryptic call from Lebanon, with the caller simply transmitting a secret message in Morse code. Could it be the diplomat kidnapped 20 months earlier, whom everyone thought was dead.
He alerts his superiors, who decide to intervene behind the backs of the Korean intelligence agency, who are too radical for such a delicate mission. Seeing an opportunity to prove himself, Min-jun insists on being on site to supervise the ransom exchange and the extraction of the missing man. As soon as he arrives in Beirut, he realizes the hard way what he has gotten himself into as Lebanese soldiers try to intercept him and even open fire. He narrowly escapes, thanks to a Korean expatriate taxi driver, Pan-su, who has been plotting shady deals ever since his country’s delegation fled.
Pursued by the Army and one of the terrorist gangsters trying to get their hands on the ransom, and constantly wary of Pan-su and the Korean secret service, frustrated by their exclusion from the operation, Min-jun embarks on a mad dash to rescue his colleague and get out of the situation alive.
I often gripe about lack of character develop in a film, but director Kim Seong-hun does a great job at building up the characters portrayed in Ransomed and when things inevitably go south (I suppose they already were south so… further south!?) the audience has a vested interest and cares about what comes next.
There are some quite humorous moments in the film too, which breaks the solemnity of the movie while also distracting from the seriousness of the subject matter. While I found these moments to be amusing, I’m not sure if a film about terrorism and kidnapping, given all that has happened since 1987, should contain comical moments or if taking a stern and fully serious approach might be more ideal. I suppose that is something the films director should concentrate on – and has.
There are some great set pieces throughout Ransomed, and some fantastic action sequences. At times truly edge of your seat stuff, as we watch a trio of South Korean nationals try to evade capture and the certain torture and probably death that would ensue if they can’t keep themselves one step ahead of the chase. There is an underlying sentiment about the futility of the world’s governments and how little citizens actually mean to those in power.
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Ransomed is a powerful film that succeeds in telling a historical tale while also presenting itself as a top-flight action film using great cinematography, and the chemistry between the main actors really helps everything gel together. Despite its solemn storyline, it also has an underlying sense of comradery and does well in showing the good side of humanity as well as the bad. While the film unravels and the chaos builds and builds, it is important to keep in mind that this is a film based on actual events.
Ransomed was a stand-out film from an incredible Fantasia festival and one that deserves to be seen. Check it out.
