A notorious hitman (and former intelligence agent) is reluctantly forced out of retirement to rescue a little girl—who turns out to be his own daughter, of course—only to be targeted by a villainous gangster who holds a grudge against him for having killed his brother years before. No, this is not the plot of a new Liam Neeson action thriller, but of Korean screenwriter, Hong Won-chan’s second directorial effort, and the protagonist, named In-nam, is played by Hwang Jung-min.
The narrative is complicated by other factors, some relayed in flashback. The girl’s mother, a former girlfriend of In-nam involved in a real estate scam in Bangkok, has been murdered, and the child’s captors are black market organ dealers, whose plans for her are obvious.
That compels In-nam to leave his refuge in Panama and travel to Thailand, where he tracks down those responsible while being pursued by Ray (Lee Jung-jae), nicknamed Butcher because of his facility with blades, who is obsessed with meting out vengeance to all those who had been involved in the death of his brother, a yakuza chieftain, back in Korea—especially In-nam, the actual assassin.
Adding to the chain of action sequences—hand-to-hand brawls, car chases, rooftop confrontations—along with a few grisly killings, the bulk of the film is the relationship that develops between In-nam and Yui (Park Jung-min), who serves as his confidante and guide to Bangkok’s dark byways.
The fact that Yui is a man—and nightclub performer—who identifies as female, seeking the means to undergo transgender surgery, may be taken as a nod in the direction of social commentary since the social hostility the character faces is a recurrent theme; and though Yui serves at first as a source of comic relief, by the close he has become a strong, courageous figure on whom In-nam has justifiably learned to depend.
The subplot about Yui, however, is really the only aspect of Deliver Us From Evil that breaks the film’s predictable mode. Otherwise, it is a fairly conventional action thriller, well-choreographed and nicely shot but narratively unexceptional. It is nonetheless strengthened by strong lead performances. Hwang makes a convincingly stalwart hero haunted by his morally compromised past and handles the role’s physical demands confidently. But it will be Lee’s over-the-top turn as the bloodthirsty Ray and Park’s showy one as Yui that viewers will likely find most memorable.
Extras include a “making of” featurette (5 min.), another on the locations (3 min.), and two trailers (3 min. total). A strong optional purchase, especially for collections specializing in Asian films.