When I read the synopsis for No Tears for the Dead, it reminded me of the Killer. An assassin makes a mistake and kills a young child. Guilt-ridden, he decides to save his next target, the child’s mother. The director is the same as the Man from Nowhere, my personal favourite Korean actioner right now. It seemed like a sure thing.
You know where this is going.
While there are some good action scenes and some solid performances, this is an okay rather than a good let alone great action movie. The storyline plods too often, and while some of the set-pieces are gripping, some of them are pedestrian. There’s just not enough good stuff in here.
Listen, an okay Korean action movie is still well ahead of almost anything put out by Hollywood, but when there are actioners like the Man from Nowhere or crime dramas like A Bittersweet Life, there’s no need to bother with No Tears for the Dead until you’ve run through those two and the Berlin File, Commitment, Old Boy, and A Company Man – possibly Suspect, but I’ll report back in on that later – and these are just the movies available on Netflix in Canada!
Kind of sad. I wish I had better news, but one so-so entry among a collection of strong showings isn’t bad.
I give No Tears for the Dead 3.5 long-range shotgun blasts out of 5. It’s better than most Hollywood actioners but not strong enough to stand against the other great movies coming out of Korea.