Secretly, Greatly (2013)

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

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.

This movie is actually great. The overall package of comedy, action, and drama deserves an appraisal. I smirked, laughed, tensed, and touched from the beginning till the NEAR end of the movie. And I think we need to give a standing ovation to Kim Soo Hyun, as he delivers the character of a top spy and a dumb fool very very well. This is one of the things in the movie which is worth to watch. However, somehow, I feel like there are some things in this movie which are actually unnecessary to be put into. The transformation of "the ajusshi" into "the professor" (I forgot his name) by putting on his glasses and suddenly turning dark-ish is a little bit exaggerated. Then the story of the professor's guard's sister who was saved by Lee Hae-rin which became the reason why he saved Hae-rin was cheesy. I mean, it would be better if it was another reason, or whatsoever. I don't know what it should be, but there must be a better reason or scene for that. There are also some other things that disturbed me at some points on the movie, but, well, I forgot what they were. It just came across my mind at some time and disappeared. In addition, I just don't like how the story end. Maybe I was just too immersed with the story, but, do they really have to do that? I just don't understand why the movie was made that way. I'm somewhere in 'the-movie-is-excellent-or-it's-just-above-average' zone, but 90% of me loves the movie. So, yeah, it's a strongly recommended Korean movie to watch. Seriously.

we are not teenagers who just blindly adore those pretty faced young Korean boys to cash in more dough for the box office. we are adults who need at least some respect from the Korean movie industries treating us still got some brain cells. we are not those immature young groupies who crazily scream out loud and chase behind these young boys with plastic surgeries as fans. we are not those kids who would welcome all the crappy funny productions simply because they are with these idolized young actors with cosmetic surgeries, transformed into female looking youngsters, with ridiculous unbelievable immature brain-dead scenarios, storyline, plots. if you watched this moronic film and couldn't stop crying, it only means that you might be still too young to distinguish bad movies from the good ones. young spies from the north Korea infiltrated to the south? like the Russian did in the cold war, spies all graduated from the 'charm schools' and then sent to America to be sleep agents spying? yeah, right. but sending the hard and tough trained youngsters to the south to live like stupid moron, for years? then ordered them to kill each others for no probable cause, just to serve the north-south détente? yeah, right. one of the young spy was still underage attending high school. yeah, right. and the other one to be a rock singer (not rock star). yeah, right. would tell me how these youngsters would do harms to the south? by jumping on the rooftops as the 'neighborhood watch' volunteers? givemeabreak, will you? and kiddos, don't feel so bad about this tragedy and couldn't stop crying, will you? wipe your nose, get it?

I got a chanced to see this in theater for independent film showings and it's a thoroughly entertaining Korean film. That just about anyone can enjoy, even if you don't know Korean culture and may not be able to pick up on some jokes. I couldn't pick up on all of it either. Since this is based on a webtoon I could understand why the editing area is lacking. Especially when trying to cram everything in the webtoon which is probably better paced into one film. This movie is a win win for a date movie since it has Kim Soo-Hyun as the main protagonist for the female audiences. And decent amount of action and comedy for the male audiences. This had my attention most of the way through but thought the build up and interaction between the characters could have been better for the ending to leave more of a impact. And for there to be a bit more action between scenes but that is just my opinion. And even the ending which is probably the ending in the webtoon seems to be a bit abrupt and out of nowhere and maybe even a bit rushed. Like I said, I think there should have been elements which lead to more of a attachment to the lead characters. But it does have enough good elements to make it a entertaining summer film from Korea. It would have been better if they polished up on those good areas though. Hollywood has DC and Marvel, well this is another Korean movie based on a webtoon that rocks.7.5/10