The Yellow Sea – Review

The region where North Korea, China and Russia meet is known as Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture. Around 800,000 Korean-Chinese known as Joseonjok reside here. Around 50% of this population relies on illegal means to survive.

This area is full of rough neighborhoods and minimal resources. Yanji is a city inside the Prefecture where cab driver Kim Goo-nam (Ha Jung-woo) gambles away money he desperately needs while playing mahjong. When hoodlums break into his apartment looking for gambling debt payments, Goo-nam wakes up reluctantly to threats of the men selling his organs. 60,000 Yuan owed is no joke.

If he wants to keep his eyeballs and organs in place, he better get working. However, he is also somewhat distracted by trying to find out more about his wife, who went south to Korea for work, and has not sent word, or money. The pressure is rising.

Things get worse as Goo-nam immediately gets into a fight at a gambling hall, and then mobster Myun Jung-hak (Kim Yoon-seok) offers him a proposal: his debts will be repaid if he goes to Korea and kills someone for him. This is guaranteed to work out well. Safe trip.

The Yellow Sea is told in a series of chapters, and is a relatively quick paced thriller despite its long runtime and winding plot. The characters are well-acted however are only so sympathetic which may be a slight detractor. That being said, The Yellow Sea is well scripted and directed, with an interesting setting and story. This is another great thriller from South Korea.

In this case, the internationally released “Director’s Cut” is actually 16 minutes shorter than the Korean released “Theatrical Cut.” This review is for the Director’s Cut, but I may watch the longer one at some point. Additionally, I have seen multiple translations of names, and the one I watched showed “Goo-nam” instead of “Gu-nam” which I have seen in other online databases. Since the pronunciation is the same, I assume there is no actual translation difference.