Nowhere to Hide (2000)

Absolutely brilliant

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

The first and last 15 minutes of this movie are really engaging visually and vitalize your interest in the story. The problem lies with the middle of the movie where little is presented to keep with the pace of the action. The movie tries too hard to capture a tone of being constantly "bad-ass", and with this loss of cohesion surrounding the plot the film breaks apart in the 2nd act. I got bored amidst the slo-mo and camera effects, they were used too much in which they lost their emphasis after a while. Also it's difficult to understand the progression of the characters, not always clear what they're doing or why. It's a standard Heroic Bloodshed flick except the cinematographer is on ecstasy and the scriptwriter is on speed. There's an imbalance between the visuals and material. Regardless it's a very interesting crime film to watch, and if your a big fan of the Matrix you can check out where the Wachowski bros took some of their inspiration from. Other than that, there's not much here for moviegoers outside the incredibly specific niche of Asian crime dramas. -5/10

Version: Original Korean cut, R3 Korean DVD, Korean audio and English subtitles.'Nowhere to Hide' is one of those all style and no substance Korean action films that is destined to be played in the SBS cult-movie slot. In saying that, I'm actually around two years late: it already played once as an SBS cult-movie about two years ago. However, after watching it for a second time on DVD, it doesn't seem as awesome as it did two years ago. It's unfortunate really, because I'm all about awesome.Woo (Joong-Hoon Park) is a rather unorthodox detective, paired with Detective (Kim Dong-Kun Jang) investigating a murder. The main suspect is Sungmin (Sung-kee Ahn), an apparent master of disguise. Being the unorthodox detective that he is Woo, tries to track down Sungmin by abusing other suspects and sleeping in the homes of people close Sungmin. Funny how no one thought to report him.Somehow, 'Nowhere to Hide' manages to drag out an incredibly thin plot to almost two hours. It really is a case of all style and little to no substance. I'll admit that it is visually stunning, but why? 'Why?' is something that has not yet been explained to me, and at first glance, none of the IMDb comments seem to answer why either. It is almost as if director Myung-se Lee decided he was going to make a cop-thriller that was long and filled with pretty pictures, but yet had no point.As an action movie it is entertaining, but nothing special. It is funny at times, but the action and humour just can't seem to keep up the interest for the full 112 minutes. I hate to admit that it even becomes a bit of bore and some points. I guess I should have watched the shortened international version.Anyone who thinks 'Matrix: Revolutions' borrowed from this film should really check out 'Volcano High' - the end in particular. I know 'Nowhere to Hide' borrowed music from Sergio Leone's 'Once Upon a Time in the West', as well as featuring Korean rock and the BeeGees.'Nowhere to Hide' is entertaining, but too long for it's own good. It should still appeal to fans of Asian action movies, but I was not impressed - 6/10

Here it is, the much-overlooked film of which the Wachowski Brothers' cultic sci-fi trilogy 'The Matrix' is the remake. In the trilogy's' final installment, the messiah figure, Neo, does battle with the bad-boy sentiments that have imprisoned most of humanity in a world of cyber unreality via a massive computer program known as The Matrix. Watch this film and tell me if it doesn't sound familiar.The Wachowski brothers, perhaps, could have (shamelessly!) ripped-off this film with a little more style; I find it ashame that so many have come to ignore it's Korean origins. Say, why not let's introduce an alien ET culture who is really the master culture enslaving the machine culture by some similar hallucinatory ruse. Or, have the humans escape by transcending their bodies, as in all the traditional gnostic spiritualities? The possibilities are without end, yet the Wachowski Brothers choose to plagarize without deviating from the Myung-se Lee's original vision.It goes without saying that the special effects in this film are supior to those found in the Matrix movies (Neo's Trio, as there sometimes referred to as) - given the high-standards set forth by Korean CGI artists, we would expect nothing less - and what we don't get from 'Revolutions' - we do get from NOWHERE TO HIDE - that little something extra in the shape of intelligence and sophistication that makes it more than just the bland, over-produced, assembly-line products which films like the MATRIX have come to typify - and which 'Revolutions' blatantly is. Even the turgid determination of Keanu Reeves can't convince us that there is anything hidden under all those cool gadgets and explosions that can't be traced back to this little gem out of S.Korea.

Nowhere to hide has to be one of the most perfectly made cop/villain thrillers i have ever seen. The movie has such a a great, yet tense feel to it and is so determined to blow the audiences minds away. The groundbreaking camera-work, beautiful cinematography, tense and violent action (featuring some of the coolest fight scenes i have ever seen) and a to die for soundtrack make this film in my opinion one of the greatest cop thrillers that has been made today. Laying right up there with 'Heat' and 'Infernal Affairs'. This film i think is not only a must see for Asian extreme fans, but for any one a fan of thrillers. 9 out of 10.