Archive for January, 2025
Winter Again: Harbin film review
The South Korean historical action thriller Harbin opened recently in the US and as expected it’s a gorgeously appointed piece of commercial cinema. Based loosely on the true story of Korean independence fighter Ahn Jung-Geun, the movie is set in 1909 at the very start of Japan’s occupation of Korea. The film is full of A-list stars, beginning with Hyun Bin (Crash Landing On You) as Anh, as well as Park Jeong-Min (Reply 1988; Hellbound), Jo Woo-Jin (Hard Hit; Mr. Sunshine, The Drug King) and Lee Dong-Wook (Goblin: The Lonely and Great God), among several others. (I believe that Woo Jung-Sung also makes a cameo as a drunken arms-dealing hermit but he’s so covered with matted hair that I wasn’t quite sure.)
Beautifully shot by Hong Kyung-pyo (Parasite; Broker; Burning), the movie opens with a striking overhead long shot of Ahn wandering across a dark frozen lake that’s laced with white fissures. Set in the titular northern province of China, Hong also takes advantage of Harbin’s icy wintertime, with shadowy leafless trees framed against gray skies and snowy cityscapes creating a bleak, moody atmosphere.
Woo Min-Ho has directed two outstanding films starring Lee Byung-Hun, the corporate crime film Inside Men and the political thriller The Man Standing Next, as well as the Song Kang-Ho vehicle The Drug King, which has a retro Tarantino vibe, and in those films as well as in Harbin he evokes a strong sense of place and history. In Harbin, Woo stages several tense scenes in swaying train cars, their constrained spaces contributing to the tension of the action, while other scenes utilize a chiaroscuro lighting scheme, with characters’ faces in deep shadow or obscured by hats, which echoes their moral and ethical ambiguity. Woo also effectively uses wide shots and long takes, as when he frames Ahn in a wide shot as he stumbles through the wreckage of a bombed-out building, his lone figure dwarfed and surrounded by the numbers of dead bodies he finds. The framing magnifies his anguish and contributes to his sense of overwhelming grief and guilt.
Hyun Bin as Ahn is Hyun Bin, meaning he is broodingly handsome even with long unkempt hair and dirt on his face. He effectively conveys Ahn’s single-minded han, but I couldn’t help but wonder what Lee Byung-Hun or Hwang Jung-Min or Ha Jung-Woo, all of whom possess mad acting skilz, would’ve brought to the role.
The movie has been at the top of the box office in South Korea in the three weeks since its release and it has a particular resonance at this moment in time. A Japanese official in the film observes, “Korea’s common people are the most troublesome. Their nation gives them nothing, but in times of national crisis they wield a strange power,” and this sentiment applies directly to current events in South Korea. President Yoon Suk Yeol has just been arrested for illegally declaring martial law at the start of December, as well as having been impeached, in large part due to citizens protesting in the streets every day for the past six weeks despite the freezing cold winter weather in Seoul. After the events depicted in Harbin, Japan occupied Korea for 35 more years, but after much armed resistance and much blood spilled by independence fighters, Korea eventually regained its sovereignty. Harbin is a reminder to those currently demonstrating in Seoul that the road to freedom may be long but ultimately justice can be served.
As someone facing the potential for an authoritarian regime here in the US, I also was uplifted by the film. Despite its typically dramatic flourishes, it’s still heartening to see a story where resistance matters and where evil forces can be vanquished. No matter how long it takes, the people of Korea didn’t give up and continue to not give up, which is a narrative that I need to see right now.
beyondasiaphilia 
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