Directors in Focus: Yoon Jong-bin | Narco-Saints (2022) Review

Director: Yoon Jong-bin

Notable Cast: Ha Jung-woo, Hwang Jung-min, Park Hae-soo, Jo Woo-jin, Yoo Yeon-seok, Chang Chen, Choo Ja-hyun, Kim Min-gwi, Hyun Bong-sik, Lee Beong-ryeon

Episodes: 6

Coming to the end of my journey with director Yoon Jong-bin, I took a journey with his most recent project, his first foray into television, with the Netflix original limited series, Narco-Saints, based on true events about a man who happens upon a fish-selling scheme that he falls victim to, which ends up being a "laced" situation. Unaware of what was in the fish he had traveled from South Korea to Suriname to gather and sell for profit, Kang In-gu (Ha Jung-woo) finds himself working for the NIS when it is brought to his attention that a powerful drug lord, a local pastor named Jeon (Hwang Jung-min), screwed over his life. Hellbent on getting revenge and a boatload of promised cash in the process, In-gu agrees to help the agent that approaches him, and thus a journey of drugs, bloodshed, and a little worship for good measure ensues.

Savage (2019)

Director: Cui Siwei
Notable Cast: Chang Chen, Liao Fan, Ni Ni, Guangjie Li, Huang Jue

The harsh tundra of Mount Baekdu in China is the backdrop for one of 2019's biggest surprises thus far, the taut, relentless crime thriller that is Savage.

Wang Kanghao (Chang Chen) is a detective who has been posted to work at a smaller town in the mountainous region, which has been in a swift economic decline since the banning of logging in their local forestry went into effect some years prior to his arrival. Instead of tending to the possible minute local disputes as one would imagine goes on in a town of its size, Wang instead finds himself thrust quickly into a deadly situation as a trio of outlaws rob a passing truck full of gold bars. What ensues is a blood-soaked, frostbitten descent into hell.

Helios (2015)

Directors: Sunny Luk and Longman Leung

Notable Cast: Nick Cheung, Jacky Cheung, Shawn Yue, Chang Chen, Wang Xueqi, Janice Man, Ji Jin-hee, Choi Siwon, Yoon Jin-yi, Josephine Koo, Fen Wenjuan, Lee Tae-ran

After the success of Cold War, directors Sunny Luk and Longman Leung needed a worthy follow up. Cold War was a decent success, most effectively by taking in 9 different awards at the Hong Kong Film Awards that year including Best Film and Best Director. Naturally, that leaves a lot of pressure on the duo to follow it up with something just as strong. A film that still felt distinctly their ‘style,’ but perhaps pushed them in some new directions. After three years, the duo came back with Helios. Now, Helios came out in 2015, but it didn’t get a US release until the end of 2018 with it ultimately debuting as a Netflix release with little fanfare and no marketing. This isn’t necessarily an indicator of quality of the film, but it does indicate that, compared to Cold War and the directing duo’s return to that world with Cold War 2 post-Helios, the film just didn’t generate the buzz. That’s because, for better or worse, Helios is too much of the same as their other films and it just can’t quite match the complex narrative flourish that allowed those to work. When it does deviate and take some chances, the film is ambitious if not flawed in trying to do so. Helios ends up being a bit too much like Icarus and instead of being a sun god, flies a bit too close instead.

Brotherhood of Blades II: The Infernal Battlefield (2017)

Director: Lu Yang

Notable Cast: Chang Chen, Yang Mi, Zhang Yi, Olivia Wang, Tan Zhuo, Lei Jia-Yin, Xin Zhilei, Chin Shih-Chieh, Li Yuan, Mickey Yuan, Liu Feng-Chao, Wang Ren-Jun, Wu Xiao-Liang

Back in 2014, Brotherhood of Blades came out as a rather big surprise. For a modern wuxia, it had an impeccable sense of balance to its dramatic storytelling, old school Hong Kong style brotherly loyalty at its core, and a flashy sense of taking modern action and mixing it with classic wuxia elements. It was artistic enough to be effective and heartfelt, but entertaining enough to strike a chord with more mainstream audiences. It was also a surprise box office hit along with winning a few awards to add to its list of strong qualities. Fortunately, it was enough to warrant a franchise out of the film and this year we were given a prequel, Brotherhood of Blades II: The Infernal Battlefield, that tells the ‘origin’ story of Chang Chen’s character from the original film. As much as a prequel can horrifically backfire, in another round of surprises, Brotherhood of Blades II is just as impactful, fun, and effective as its predecessor. It’s inherently the same kind of film, a historically set wuxia surrounding a conspiracy with plenty of morally gray characters to fill out the tale, but it’s also one that strips the film back and refocuses itself on one key element: a love story. And it works brilliantly.