A scene from the South Korean action thriller Escape. Courtesy of Well Go USA Entertainment

Recently, I’ve found a slew of Korean action flicks to be quite impressive, particularly for outstanding stuntwork and effects. Most have been contemporary crime-themed offerings. Escape, despite its potentially action-heavy title, goes in another direction – longer on political propaganda. Still quite effective.

The protagonist is a sergeant in the North Korean army (Lee Je-hoon) in a unit patrolling the southern border with you-know-who. The area is riddled with land mines to deter deserters and defectors. He forms an elaborate plan to defect, including painstakingly mapping all the mines he’ll have to avoid when the time comes. Steve McQueen’s characters from Papillon and The Great Escape would both admire his level of preparation. His goal gets complicated when discovered by one of his men (Hong Xa-bin), who insists on going with him under threat of exposure.