Yellow Sea (2010) – Dir Cut

AKA: Hwanghae
Directed by: Na Hong-jin
Starring: Ha Jung-woo (Goo-nam), Kim Yoon-seok (Myun Jung-hak), Jo Sung-ha (Tae-won), Kwak Do-won (Prof. Kim Seung-hyun), Lim Ye-won (Kim Seung-hyun’s wife), Lee El as Joo-young (Tae-won’s mistress), Tak Sung-eun (Goo-nam’s wife)
Country: South Korea; Effed Up Asian Films
Language: Korean (Eng Subs); Effed Up Korean Cinema
Runtime: 02:20:04
Genres: Gruesome

Plot – Spoilers:
An outofluck Korean-Chinese taxi driver, Goo-nam, living in Yanbian has taken a huge loan to pay for his wife’s visa to work in South Korea. But she’s since been ghosting him and their daughter and his debtors wake him up every other morning with several raps to the head. The pressure to repay has Goo-nam toiling all day driving his taxi around town and then gambling his earnings away hoping for a big win. A gangster takes note of his situation and offers him a deal to travel to Seoul to kill someone and have his debt cleared in exchange. The opportunity is too tempting, especially since it means Goo-nam might be able to also track down his missing wife.

The Yellow Sea tests your credulity to extreme levels with Goo-nam having the lives of a cockroach, refusing to be stomped out even when there are a ton of people after him. But it’s from the director of The Wailing and The Chaser which are fairly popular here.

There are two versions of the film. This, the Director’s Cut and the original, longer (slightly lower quality) Theatrical Cut, which is lengthier not necessarily because it’s more violent, but more because of fatter plots.