South Korean film “Escape” is something I might enjoy more around, say, 30 years ago. During that time, I was an avid consumer of those grim horror stories about North Korea, and I must say that the movie is curiously not so far from them in terms of mood, story, and characters. As our hero desperately tries to escape from one of the worst countries in the world, the movie throws lots of exaggerated villainy into the story, and we are supposed to root for him more as he gets closer and closer to the demarcation line between South and North Korea despite lots of risky obstacles in front of him.

At first, we get to know how a young North Korean soldier named Gyu-nam (Lee Je-hoon) has prepared for escape for some time. He has been in a military base not so far from the demarcation line, and he sneaks out of the base every night for checking out the location of numerous mines in the zone preceding the demarcation line. Now he is almost near the final stage of his plan, and all he will have to do is finding the right time for his escape to South Korea.

However, of course, there comes an unexpected trouble via Dong-hyuk (Hong Xa-bin), one of the soldiers in the base who also wants to escape to South Korea. As Dong-hyuk subsequently tries to escape, Gyu-nam finds himself in a very risky situation where he can be executed along with Dong-hyuk, and then things become more complicated when an officer from the National Security Department suddenly comes down to the base to everyone’s surprise.

This officer in question is Hyun-sang (Koo Kyo-hwan), and it gradually turns out that he has a hidden personal motive behind his back. Besides saving Gyu-nam from his current trouble, Hyun-sang will have Gyu-nam closer to him for their old time’s sake while also making him into a hero to be decorated, and that is certainly not something Guy-name wants. 

Although it spends almost the half of its running time (96 minutes) for establishing the story and characters, the movie quickly moves onto a series of intense moments of action and suspense as Gyu-nam tries to escape again (Is this a spoiler?). Hyun-sang and his cronies frantically and ruthlessly pursue Gyu-nam, but, to my little amusement, they always underestimate Gyu-nam in one way or another. For instance, there is a certain key moment where Hyun-sang can instantly kill Gyu-nam right now, but then he hesitates for a few seconds, and then, what do you know, Gyu-nam quickly takes advantage of that and then keeps running away from his opponents. 

Around that narrative point, we are supposed to care more about Gyu-nam’s attempt to escape, but the movie fails to present him as an engaging human character to observe and care about. While there is a brief flashback scene showing his family background, that feels rather perfunctory in my inconsequential opinion, and he consequently feels as broad and bland as many other characters in the story, who are more or less than your average totalitarian stock figures.

Despite his rather thin character, Lee Je-hoon, who has steadily advance since his two memorable performances in “Bleak Night” (2010) and “The Front Line” (2011), looks as committed as required on the screen, and that may be enough for you to hold your disbelief during several nearly unbelievable scenes in the film including the one where he runs fast across the mine field without any caution at all. As a fellow soldier who happens to be involved with Gyu-nam, Hong Xa-bin has a lot more stuffs to do compared to his previous film “Hopeless” (2023), and his earnest acting comes to earn more pity and sympathy from us.

However, these two actors’ efforts are often eclipsed by the neurotic villain performance by Koo Kyo-hwan, who is constantly on the verge of going over the top but never loses his focused attitude at all even during the expectedly melodramatic finale. As the movie shows more of Hyun-Sang along the story, we get to know more of the growing anxiety and frustration behind his dapper appearance, and you may be also amused by some kind of emotional undercurrent between him and a certain minor character. As the main villain of the story, he is hateful in every aspect except having a mustache to twirl, but we come to understand more of what makes him tick at least, and that certainly makes him the most interesting figure in the story.    

 The movie is directed by Lee Jong-pil, who previously directed “Samjin Company English Class” (2020). Compared to that lightweight female comedy film, “Escape” feels quite different as an intense male thriller film, and you can clearly discern that Lee tries something different here, though the result is not entirely successful. He and his crew members including cinematographer Kim Sung-an and editor Lee Kang-hee surely put considerable efforts on the screen, but their efforts still cannot compensate enough for the weak aspects of the screenplay by Kwon Seong-hwi and Kim Woo-geun including the overtly sentimental epilogue scene, which feels rather jarring compared to the rest of the film.

In conclusion, “Escape” works to some degree, but I got often distracted by its glaring flaws during my viewing. Considering that it is a fairly competent genre product, you may not mind its weak points if you ever happen to come across it via cable TV or streaming service on one boring Sunday afternoon, and I will not stop you from watching it.