Fear a meaningless life, not death itself
2024-07-03
N/A
96 min
After completing his required decade of military service and being honored as a hero, a North Korean sergeant makes a sudden shocking attempt to defect to the South, risking life and limb for the chance to finally determine his own destiny.
Having seen the trailers for Escape I looked forward to this film but somehow, it didn't quite live up, to my expectations.
On the upside there is a lot of decent action and characterisations. The two main protagonists, the soldier trying to defect to the South and the North Korean senior officer, pursing him, are well rendered and inherently interesting.
That said, Escape fails to bring things together in a wholly satisfying way. It repeatedly builds and dissipates tension over the course of the film, making the experience feel uneven and at times, a little repetitive.
On a different note there's also a dash of the by now usual woke nonsense, clumsily designed to highlight the "intolerance" of the North Korean regime towards people of differing sexual proclivities. I don't really care but the incessant politicking is tiresome. You could argue too, there's a counter argument for being "tolerant" of differing, non-westernized, societal norms but anyway......
In summary, a reasonable action thriller that could have been a lot more enjoyable again, with a tighter, more focused script.
