Secretly Greatly (2013)

• Year: 2013
• Released: 19 Jul 2013
• Country: South Korea
• Adwords: 5 wins & 2 nominations
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2967578/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/secretly_greatly
• Metacritics:
• Available in: 720p, 1080p,
• Language: Korean
• MPA Rating: PG-13
• Genre: Action, Comedy, Drama
• Runtime: 124 min
• Writer: Bang-hyun Kim, Hong-gi Yun, Hun
• Director: Cheol-soo Jang
• Cast: Kim Soo-hyun, Gi-woong Park, Hyun-Woo Lee
• Keywords: spy, politics, based on comic, communism, inter-korean relations, based on webcomic or webtoon,

	6.8/10
	71% – Audience

Secretly Greatly Storyline

A group of spies, the 5446 Corps were trained by North Korean special forces since their youth, with a goal of unifying Korea. They are ambitiously dispatched to South Korea, where each disguises himself as a fool, an aspiring singer, and a high school student. Passing boring time without receiving any orders from the North, they gradually get used to life as ordinary neighbors in a small town. Due to the events of the Second Battle of Yeonpyeong, South Korea demands the names, location, and rank of 30 North Korean spies active in South Korea, promising financial aid to the North on the condition that Pyongyang turns in their spies. To prevent the elites from falling into enemy hands, the North Korean government orders dozens of active duty spies to take their own lives. Meanwhile, their North Korean army instructor Kim Tae-won crosses the border to eliminate those who refuse to comply.

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Secretly Greatly Movie Reviews

I expected the humour and the action, not the drama or the tears

I read a short review of the film before watching it and so expected it to be a typical Korean comedy. But it surprised me with credible drama and lots of parkour-style action as well.

In short, this is a film about 3 North Korean sleeper spies in the South. The first half of the film shows them in their sleeper lives and how they, especially Won (played by Soo Hyun Kim), live their dual lives. Won as the village idiot has the best role – an intelligent, highly capable spy acting as a dumb grocer’s assistant. It’s always a treat to see him alternate between his dual identities, though his dumb act consists mostly of falling down or off something.

The other characters warm your heart too. There is the musician-wannabe spy who mocks Won and his loyalty to the North, the young spy who looks up to his idol-mentor Won, the party girl whose deepest secret is her longing for her unplanned child given away for adoption, the son of the grocer who cares for and loves his mother and Won more than he appears to, and the grocer-mother who treats Won as a son despite her crusty exterior, and others.

The humor in the dialogue is sometimes unexpected, which is another plus. The parkour-style action scenes are short but thrilling, and the fight choreography are exciting to watch. Stories involving the different characters are told within the main story, creating subplots which are heartwarming and interesting for the most part. When the final order comes, the internal and external conflicts over it drive the 2nd half of the movie. And I loved and hated the ending for being so good and being so good it hurt that it didn’t end any other way.

If you’re looking for a comedy with heart and action, I’d definitely recommend this over the common rehashed Hollywood ones. At the very least, it manages to get the story told (and it’s a long story) without too many distractions or wishy-washy segues.

It had it all!

I laughed, I cried…. This movie had it all. The first half was actually comical and light, where the second have grew darker, more violent, and so sad. I’m not a fan of violence in films (it’s just hard for me to watch), but it was integral to the story so it was inevitably used here. The strangely interesting thing is that as the movie got darker and more intense, it also got more personal.

I went last night to see this movie with a Korean friend. I don’t speak any Korean myself, so used the subtitles. They were written obviously by someone who spoke English as a second language, as some of the phrasing and word choice was odd, but I kind of liked that. It made it feel like the story was being told by an actual Korean (rather than an American interpreter) like my friend, who has slightly “broken” English as well.

I am sure that if this movie were made in America, it would win many Oscars. Of course then it wouldn’t be the same movie. I hope it at least comes up as a best foreign film nominee. I highly recommend this wonderful movie!

Valiant try, but imbalanced and overlong

There are some great parts to this film, and there is some strong craft at work, but as a whole, the film suffers from imbalance and then struggles to maintain pace.

What starts off as ostensibly a comedy changes its genre completely by the middle. Whereas there are attempts at silly humor for the early going, they are dropped completely in favor of the action/intrigue aspect before too long. It’s very strange to be halfway through and remember the early tones of the story, now all but forgotten.

There are strong points: the photography is great; the fight scenes are good (too many cuts, but still good); the philosophical struggle the characters face is well-drawn.

There are also some low points, but overall the film I’d say is worth watching – just be ready for two different halves.