When you watch this Japanese 2017 Ryu san, you might suddenly remember there are many similar yet not quite similar storylines, scenarios, plots roughly close to what we have seen in Ajeossi (The Man from Nowhere), a Korean 2010 blockbuster.
The other similar but not quite similar part of these two movies: Ryu san was directed by Sabu, while Jeong-beom Lee directed Ajeossi, but both were also the writer of their own movie. But I am quite sure that Sabu's screenplay was influenced by Lee's movie, and Lee's screenplay was inspired by the French writer and director Luc Besson's Taken, a blockbuster of 2008.
The scenarios, plots and the storylines among these three movies are quite obvious:
Taken (2008): A retired CIA agent travels across Europe and relies on his old skills to save his estranged daughter, who has been kidnapped while on a trip to Paris. The locality is Paris and Europe. Leading role: An old guy.
Ajeossi (The Man from Nowhere) 2010: A quiet pawnshop keeper with a violent past takes on a drug-and-organ trafficking ring in hope of saving the child girl who is his only friend. But the pawnshop keeper was actually a Korean Special Force No.1 killer; a much younger secret soldier than the retired CIA in Taken. The locality is South Korea. Leading role: A loner around 30s.
Ryu san (2017): Professional hitman Long takes on an assignment in Japan. When things go awry, he has to flee. Badly injured, he takes refuge in a deserted part of a small town, befriended with a young boy. The localities: Taiwan and Japan. A loner around 35.
See the similarities and subtly changed revised or replaced racial, nationalities, backgrounds, localities, sets...?
Critics and reviewers often judged and or praised a good movie only by its director, but I have to say, without a good screenplay, no matter how great or talented a director would be, there's no way a good movie could exist. Directors are just persons who materialize, visualize, arrange screenplays to make them happen. If both the writer and director are the same person who made a movie great or good, then that director is the real deal and deserves the praise.
As to this Ryu san (2017), director Sabu obviously borrowed and changed a lot of stuff to distinguish it from the former two movie by adding many different ingredients too. But the pace is a bit too slow, the subplots also dragged its paces may be a bit too long.
There's a definite similar climax to these three movies: Fast, bloody, cruel and deadly. They all drive-you-nuts GREAT!!
