Opening

72% World War Z Jun 21
77% Monsters University Jun 21
61% The Bling Ring Jun 21
60% Maniac Jun 21
100% A Hijacking Jun 21
66% Unfinished Song Jun 21
100% The Attack Jun 21
—— The Haunting of Helena Jun 21

Top Box Office

55% Man of Steel $116.6M
85% This Is the End $20.7M
50% Now You See Me $11.0M
71% Fast & Furious 6 $9.6M
38% The Purge $8.3M
34% The Internship $7.1M
62% Epic $6.3M
87% Star Trek Into Darkness $6.3M
11% After Earth $4.1M
78% Iron Man 3 $3.0M

Coming Soon

—— How To Make Money Selling Drugs Jun 26
—— White House Down Jun 28
—— The Heat Jun 28
56% I'm So Excited! Jun 28

Typhoon (2005)

tomatometer

22

Average Rating: 4.2/10
Reviews Counted: 32
Fresh: 7 | Rotten: 25

A pseudo-political thriller on the fritz, Typhoon drowns in its own heavy handedness and silly acting.

33

Average Rating: 4.7/10
Critic Reviews: 12
Fresh: 4 | Rotten: 8

A pseudo-political thriller on the fritz, Typhoon drowns in its own heavy handedness and silly acting.

audience

48

liked it
Average Rating: 3.2/5
User Ratings: 1,273

My Rating

Movie Info

A would-be North Korean defector still reeling over the killing of his family by the communist government when he was just a child determines to destroy the Korean peninsula in a tense, politically minded action thriller directed by Kwak Kyung-taek and starring Jang Dong-gun, Lee Jung-jae, and Lee Mi-yeon. When a vessel sailing a few hundred kilometers off the northeast port of Jt Long in Taiwan is hijacked by pirates and the National Intelligence Service learns that a nuclear guidance kit has

May 27, 2008

$0.1M

Paramount Classics - Official Site External Icon

Cast

ADVERTISEMENT

All Critics (36) | Top Critics (13) | Fresh (7) | Rotten (25) | DVD (1)

Like a poor manâ(TM)s Tony Scott movie.

April 27, 2007 Full Review Source: Time Out
Time Out
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Caught up in a triple vortex of poor scripting, unexciting action and leads you couldn't care less about, the pic boasts good production values but little else.

August 1, 2006 Full Review Source: Variety
Variety
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Typhoon aims high but misses the emotional mark in most instances, resulting in some awkward melodramatics.

June 24, 2006 Full Review Source: New York Times
New York Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Director Kyung-Taek Kwak orchestrates all this with flair, but leading man Lee doesn't have much to offer beyond a steely stoicism, and Jang's histrionic villainy borders on the parodic.

June 16, 2006
Philadelphia Inquirer
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The movie delivers the same old American action-flick themes of catastrophe narrowly averted, but the Korean version alters the meaning from triumph to sorrow.

June 16, 2006 Full Review Source: Globe and Mail
Globe and Mail
Top Critic IconTop Critic

It has a fair sense of documentary reality, and the action sequences -- from shootout to car chase to a commando takedown of a tanker on the high seas to a final knife fight -- are extremely well managed.

June 2, 2006 Full Review Source: Washington Post
Washington Post
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Typhoon is a goofy mess, plenty exhilarating in all the right spots, except for the character ones.

June 5, 2008 Full Review Source: DVDTalk.com
DVDTalk.com

what on paper just sounds like adrenaline-pumped nonsense turns out on screen to be a sensitive and surprisingly sombre study of the personal tragedies afflicting the divided Koreas.

July 2, 2007 Full Review Source: musicOMH.com
musicOMH.com

As mad as meth-fried badgers having shoes thrown at them... and makes about as much sense.

April 27, 2007 Full Review Source: Total Film
Total Film

As desperately overblown as anything Hollywood has ever concocted.

April 27, 2007 Full Review Source: Guardian [UK]
Guardian [UK]

Bad acting butts heads with bad-ass action.

April 27, 2007 Full Review Source: Times [UK]
Times [UK]

Large chunks have been lost in translation.

April 27, 2007 Full Review Source: Film4

Limps along like an arthritic dog.

April 27, 2007 Full Review Source: BBC
BBC

Pure action-thriller adventure is ruined with an overly melodramatic second half.

April 27, 2007 Full Review Source: Empire Magazine
Empire Magazine

A muscular Korean thriller that hearkens back to the monolithic Hollywood blockbusters of a decade or so ago-but not in a good way.

June 13, 2006 Full Review Source: Film Journal International
Film Journal International

[Jang Dong-gun]...is the main attraction, which almost compensates for the film's problems.

June 4, 2006

[A] jamboree of Cold War emotion and ham-on-a-spit acting.

June 2, 2006 Full Review Source: San Diego Union-Tribune
San Diego Union-Tribune

The action comes fast and thick, and the sentimentality reaches near-operatic proportions.

June 2, 2006 Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide
TV Guide's Movie Guide

A testosterone-driven, Jerry Bruckheimer-style action film as overblown as its title suggests.

June 2, 2006
Reel.com

Audience Reviews for Typhoon

Big budget Korean action drama about a modern day pirate with a serious grudge against both North and South Korea who threatens to unleash a nuclear cloud above both countries. It's all quite Americanized and resembles a Jerry Bruckheimer production at times, but it has its fair share of drama too as the back story and motives of the villain are played out. It's a pretty slick film with well staged action sequences but nothing we haven't seen before from Hollywood.
February 6, 2011
WrenchLT
Lee ?

Super Reviewer

This Korean film is actually a melodrama cleverly disguised as an action thriller. Sure, on the surface there are plenty of gunfights and firepower, and the plot is about an impending terrorist act thrust upon South Korea. However, at its core the movie is about a North Korean family scorned and denied entry into the South, and the bitter aftermath of the surviving brother and sister. That inner story is truly touching and in the end plenty of sorrow. Typical reliable korean storytelling with fine acting especially by the villian more so than the stoic hero. Overall, definitely worth a watch!
October 26, 2009
alanjayh
alan jay

Super Reviewer

No quotes approved yet for Typhoon. Logged in users can submit quotes.

Discussion Forum

There are no discussion threads for Typhoon yet.

What's Hot On RT

24 Frames
24 Frames

Pictures from a zombie nation

Blue Jasmine
Blue Jasmine

Woody Allen in San Francisco

<em>The Hobbit</em>
The Hobbit

See the Desolation of Smaug trailer!

Summer Scorecard
Summer Scorecard

Where does This Is the End rank?

Latest News on Typhoon

June 4, 2006:
Box Office Wrapup: Women Power "Break-Up" to #1
Nosy moviegoers just couldn't stay away from a high-profile lovers quarrel as the anti-romantic...
June 1, 2006:
Critical Consensus: "The Break-Up" Gets Dumped
This week at the movies brings us "The Break-Up," a hotly-anticipated dark comedy...
Help | About | Jobs | Critics Submission | API | Licensing | Mobile