Netflix released many dazzling, action-packed episodic series this year, including we are all dead and Money heist: Korea. But his next big action piece is a movie carter, starring Joo Won. The normally clean-cut heartthrob image of Joo Won undergoes a startling morph into the gruff, rowdy Carter (the film’s namesake). carter is directed by Jung Byung-gil, who made his career out of his stylized, high-octane action directing in films like The villainess (2017) and confession of murder (2012).
Viewers looking for a solid action film will find plenty of thrills in this gripping, clean-cut film carter, where all the action sequences are interwoven to give the film a one-take effect. There are stunning aerial footage of rooftop fights and waterfall escapes, alongside chilling car chases through dimly lit cavernous spaces – with the increasingly familiar backdrop of tensions between North and South Korea. What carter in action, choreography and stage design, it pulls through with great sovereignty.
However, if you are looking for a more character-driven story or have a lower tolerance for long, complex action sequences, you could find it carter‘s 132-minute runtime is a bit too overwhelming.
carter begins with an exposure-heavy introduction, noting that the Korean peninsula is grappling with a horrific infectious outbreak of the “DMZ virus.” The viral infection produces “animal-like behaviors” and increases violent tendencies in those infected. Leaders from North and South Korea work together to develop an antibody treatment using the blood of Doctor Jung’s daughter, named Ha-na, who was cured of DMZ virus infection through her father’s research. However, Doctor Jung (Jung Jae-young) and Ha-na (Kim Bo-min) go missing during a transfer agreement to North Korea, where the doctor was to further his research and mass-produce a cure for the virus Chemical Weapons Institute Sinuiju. Crowds of infected North Korean patients are also being quarantined there. Meanwhile, Carter wakes up to find a mysterious voice giving him instructions through a headset. He has no choice but to complete the mission as he has a deadly bomb in his mouth.
The outbreak of the DMZ virus comes just 10 months after a truce between North and South Korea, with the truce delicately balanced amid distrust on both sides over the botched transfer of Doctor Jung and Ha-na. The geopolitical setting and health crisis provide the necessary narrative stakes amid the film’s non-stop action whirlwind. There’s also a whole cast of fascinating characters: foreign liaisons, members of the North Korean Workers’ Party, military leaders, intelligence agents, infectious disease doctors, and children. Unfortunately, each of them is only lightly used (with the exception of young Ha-na); They exit the film as quickly as they entered, leaving viewers to regret missed opportunities to deepen the film’s storytelling and character arcs.
There’s a sharp sense in carter that the action always takes precedence over character development or well-crafted emotional twists. The film also has a significant amount of gore, which feels lengthened or even spoiled by the film’s “one-shot” style. In several places in carter, viewers may struggle to find answers to some fundamental questions in the sacred art of storymaking: What is currently driving the story’s protagonist, Carter, to take such disproportionate risks? On the other hand, what are the reasons for the antagonist’s decisions? What is essentially the motivation behind each character’s action?
One of the biggest talking points of carter is the “single-take” style in which it was shot. The film consists of several shots, but the overall effect works. As the film breathlessly moves from a public bathhouse to a bus, a warehouse, a medical facility, a clothing store, and an airplane, to name a few, the “single take” style emerges carter a sense of vastness in space that few action films have been able to match. The camera tirelessly chases the equally industrious Carter through physical space, caught together in chaos and uncertainty. There is no respite offered by an alternate viewpoint, nor additional knowledge gained by a feed; The enemy can appear from any direction.
Several sequences are a triumph of filmmaking, particularly those in which vehicles soar through a dizzying array of sets: a motorcycle chase through labyrinthine streets and alleys, an airplane patch-off scene that morphs into a parachutist combat scene ( which was actually filmed with the actors skydiving). and a combat sequence featuring trucks and jeeps speeding through an agricultural landscape. Sequences are strung together almost effortlessly – a stark contrast to the incredibly labor intensive work and planning that went into creating them carter. At times, the movie feels like a giant, convoluted escape room game. The nagging question may arise here as to whether carterThe cinematic achievements of are wasted on the small screens where Netflix audiences will watch the film, as all of the efforts may not translate fully to home viewing.
This is the case in the last 25 minutes of the film carter really digs into the meatier themes and develops an unexpected emotional heaviness. It raises the question of kinship—the family we are born into and the “family” we find—and how responsibilities and caring responsibilities flow into those relationships. The film also raises questions about identity and the information warfare caused by Carter’s amnesia. The ubiquity of technology – the film takes this very literally through the embedded electronics in Carter’s body – resonates with relevance. Disturbingly, just as Carter wrestles with trying to discover his identity through the incessant flow of text messages and information from a faceless voice, technology has also become a major force in defining the knowledge of ourselves and the world.
These are all interesting questions raised by carter. However, viewers may have to dig deep beneath the film’s explosions and track scenes to find them.
carter now streaming on Netflix.
#Netflixs #Carter #puts #action
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