The Yellow Sea (Hwanghae)

2011

The Yellow Sea (Hwanghae)

Critics Consensus

No consensus yet.

The Yellow Sea (Hwanghae) Photos

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Movie Info

The Yellow Sea follows Gu-nam (Ha Jung-Woo), a cab driver from this region who embarks on an assassination mission to South Korea in order to pay off his mounting debt as well as search for his missing wife. He takes on the job without knowing much about his target and soon finds himself in the middle of a dangerous conspiracy as he begins to uncover a vicious trap of betrayal and lies. Framed for the murder he did not commit, Gu-nam is chased down by the police as well as those responsible for this mess - a ruthless mob boss (Cho Seong-Ha) and a tenacious assassin (Kim Yun-Seok). All hell breaks loose as gangsters and killers clash and collide in a game of hunt-or-be-hunted. -- (C) Showbox

Rating:

R (for brutal bloody violence, some strong sexuality, nudity, and language)
Genre:

Art House & International, Drama, Mystery & Suspense
Directed By:

Hong-jin Na
Written By:

Hong-jin Na
In Theaters:

Dec 2, 2011 limited
On Disc/Streaming:

Mar 26, 2012
Runtime:

146 minutes
Studio:

20th Century Fox

Watch it now

Cast

Ha Jung-woo
as Gu-nam

Kim Yun-seok
as Myun Jung-hak

Chul-Min Lee

Critic Reviews for The Yellow Sea (Hwanghae)

All Critics (22) | Top Critics (8) | DVD (1)

...does boast its fair share of gripping moments.

Mar 21, 2013 | Full Review…

William Goss
MSN Movies
Top Critic
A breakneck mix of bone-crunching freneticism and bloody close-quarters knife-fighting with a strand of romantic melancholy.

Dec 1, 2011 | Rating: 3.5/5 | Full Review…

Mark Olsen
Los Angeles Times
Top Critic
A rush of a movie from South Korea that slips and slides from horror to humor on rivers of blood and offers the haunting image of a man, primitive incarnate, beating other men with an enormous, gnawed-over meat bone.

Dec 1, 2011 | Rating: 4/5

Manohla Dargis
New York Times
Top Critic
The Yellow Sea is far less interested in character than in choreographing pursuit scenes spiced with Asia Extreme levels of violence.

Nov 29, 2011 | Rating: 3/5 | Full Review…

David Fear
Time Out
Top Critic
Writer-director Na Hong-Jin achieves a vibe of urban desolation right off the bat, and deepens the mayhem with acutely observed and charged details about illegal-immigrant life.

Nov 29, 2011 | Full Review…

Michael Atkinson
Village Voice
Top Critic
The action is epic but there's psychological depth too.

Oct 21, 2011 | Rating: 3/5

Derek Malcolm
London Evening Standard
Top Critic
Na Hong-jin maintained most of the elements that made an impression in his debut, by incorporating great characters, desperation and agony, and impressive fighting scenes.

Mar 8, 2019 | Full Review…

Panos Kotzathanasis
Asian Movie Pulse
The Yellow Sea is a genre film that has more to offer than just a high body count.

Aug 27, 2018 | Rating: 4/5 | Full Review…

Isabel Stevens
ViewLondon
Although the central story is compelling, even fans of this ultra-violent genre might find The Yellow Sea (the water between China and Korea) is too long and dark, especially given the way the leading characters wear black at night.

Dec 14, 2011 | Rating: 3/5 | Full Review…

Graham Young
Birmingham Post
Probably the year's best crime drama and might be confirmation that there is a new master of the genre, spinning tough as teak tales, ready to emerge

Dec 5, 2011 | Full Review…

Urban Cinefile Critics
Urban Cinefile
a gripping existentialist thriller, where jealousy, greed and desperation lead inexorably to a chaos of carnage, and where exile and death cross their borders to merge into an emotionally-charged sequence of final images.

Nov 10, 2011 | Full Review…

Anton Bitel
Film4
At nearly two and a half hours long, The Yellow Sea is overkill in every sense.

Oct 25, 2011 | Rating: 2/5 | Full Review…

Philip Kemp
Total Film

View All Critic Reviews (22)

Audience Reviews for The Yellow Sea (Hwanghae)

Feb 02, 2015

Beating around the bush kinda makes it feel too slow-paced & eventually leading to its failure to leave the impact the plot otherwise had the potential to.

familiar s Super Reviewer
Jan 06, 2013

Na Hong-jin's The Yellow Sea is a crafted Korean crime thriller.The 2 hour 15 minute run time is lengthy, especially when the plot details get sketchy. The 4 chapter story does contain some good storytelling, but things can become elusive with a wealth of characters to focus on. Nonetheless, the plot twists come in at opportune times and the cloudiness of what comes next as the story progresses works in the film's favor.Aside from the story, the gritty and realistic violence, full of knives and hatchets, is a pleasant surprise and in high abundance. The destructive vehicle sequences are the icing on the cake.Ha Jung-woo is a convincing neutral protagonist. A lot of blood comes at the hands of Kim Yun-seok.Once the final scene, which occurs in the closing credits, is over, The Yellow Sea finds itself as a recommendable picture out of Korea.

JY S Super Reviewer
Dec 27, 2012

Na Hong Jin brings us his second feature after the dark and disturbing The Chaser. The Yellow Sea is a complex character piece that sees a man from Yanji City travel to South Korea to kill a man in order to pay off his missing wife's debts. Like The Chaser, this is also a film that mixes fast paced action and gritty realistic violence. In many ways The Yellow Sea is a lot like a poor man's Bourne, but not in terms of production quality. As Gu Nam travels to Seoul it isn't by plane in a fancy suit, he's herded into a ship in a room with dozens of other people, freezing and sick not everyone makes it. Gu Nam takes his time over the kill and it shows his inexperience. Of course, Gu Nam is really there to search for his missing wife but as things escalate so does the action. Incredible chases on foot and by car elevate this thriller to something that really does thrust a man on the run thriller into the real world. As the film progresses more and more people find themselves involved in the hunt for Gu Nam it's rather humorous to see him quite oblivious to those after him. The Yellow Sea sees the tragic places people from the almost ignored Yanji City find themselves in. Love and dedication are the main themes but are hidden behind an exhilarating wall of delicately crafted action sequences. Brilliant.

Luke B Super Reviewer
Sep 09, 2012

Liked it up to half way through, then felt like a totally different movie, too many characters, couldn't follow it at all. (or maybe it's just it was very late and I was tired...).

Nicki M Super Reviewer