Escape

A deserter finds that getting out is even harder than expected in Lee Jong-pil’s taut thriller.

“Fail as much as you want.”

Breaking out of any confinement is always a difficult task. Wentworth Miller didn’t have an entire building’s blueprints tattooed on himself for nothing. But nothing compares to getting out of North Korea, a state famous for its extreme border control, its brutal execution of deserters and its paranoid atmosphere. This is where North Korea’s Segreant Lim Kyun-nam (Lee Je-hoon) finds himself, and he is determined to leave at any cost.

Every night he races across the DMZ and marks the positions of landmines on a hand drawn map, with the plan to flee before the next rainstorm moves the mines. However, he is caught by a fellow soldier Kim Dong-hyuk (Hong Xa-bin), who tries to escape first. Kyun-nam is believed by higher-ups to have caught the deserter and is celebrated, where he meets Major Lee Hyun-sang (Koo Kyo-hwan). When Kyun-nam sets his plan into motion once more, he finds himself furiously followed by Lee, who becomes increasingly fascinated by his prey.

Escape is a film that almost perfectly encapsulates everything good about the cat-and-mouse style thriller. It establishes its two leads, their goals and ensures they have personalities that wildly oppose one another. Kyun-nam and Hyun-sang are both dogged in their pursuit of their goals, and as unstoppable objects they also act as each other’s unmoveable objects. They don’t spend the most time together, but the scenes they do share have a spark that makes this kind of movie stand out.

As a setting North Korea lends itself nicely to a tense thriller that feels claustrophobic even in wide-open exteriors. Being stuck in a world where you are incentivised to rat on your neighbour if you seem suspicious makes Kyun-nam’s situation ten times worse than any typical jailbreak. In prison, there’s solidarity; in North Korea, everyone is an enemy.

With the exception of the almost entirely unnecessary story midway through involving the nomads – though they do help to remind us that North Korea isn’t just military bases – Lee Jong-pil runs a tight ship and wastes almost no time getting the story told. In other hands this could have easily stretched to beyond two hours, but through the clever of use of an imminent rain storm, a timer is introduced and forces the film to move quickly.

Ultimately, the film is a strong example of this type of thriller. By keeping extraneous elements to a minimum and putting its emphasis on its stakes, the movie keeps its tension high throughout. Though it probably could have done a bit more to explore the ideas that came with making its villain gay – a gay Major in North Korea no less – without ruining its pacing. Either way, I had a great time even as its characters were suffering. Hell, probably because of it.

 Verdict: A great cast and some white-knuckle moments keeps Escape’s momentum going, through no man’s land, all the way to that little deserter’s phone.

Overall entertainment: 8/10
Violence: Surprisingly less than expected; 6/10
Sex: 0/10
Dead boars: So many
The brother: Guess we’re not rescuing him, huh
Completely random jokes: At least 2
Lin’s piano skills: Easily 7/10. Used to be higher

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Escape (2024)
Also known as: 탈주, Talju
Korean

Director: Lee Jong-pil
Writers: Kwon Seong-hwi, Kim Woo-geun

CAST

Lee Je-hoon – Lim Gyu-nam
Koo Kyo-hwan –  Le Hyun-sang
Hong Xa-bin – Kim Dong-hyuk
Seo Hyun-woo – Major Cha
Lee Sung-wook – Hong
Jung Joon-won –  Scond Lieutenant Park
Park Yoon-hee – Director of the General Political Bureau
Song Kang – Seon Woo-min
Esom – nomad leader