ESCAPE Review: A Chase to the North Korean Border

South Koreans are understandably obsessed with North Korea, reflected in the many novels, movies, and TV series about defectors, infiltrators, and border incidents. Crash Landing on You swings back and forth across both countries; Ashfall sends Southerners on a mission to a nuclear reactor in the North; Joint Security Area covers a fatal border incident.

Add to those Escape, a solid thriller that follows a desperate plot to flee from the North. Kim Kyu-nam (Lee Je-hoon) appears to be a model soldier, a sergeant nearing his release after ten years in the army. But every night, he sneaks out of his barracks to map a route to the border of the Demilitarized Zone.

Using only a compass, wristwatch, and hand-drawn map, Kyu-nam marks a path through fields, swamps, and across a minefield, the lights of South Korea shining in the distance. By day, he joins patrols searching for deserters who face execution on capture.

Kyu-nam is spotted by fellow soldier Kim Dong-hyuk (Hong Xa-bin), who threatens to expose the plan unless he can come along. Dong-hyuk proves to be such a liability that both are captured and brought to a detainee facility.

The officials who will determine Kyu-nam’s fate are joined by Li Hyun-sang (Koo Kyo-hwan), a high-ranking State Security Officer. He proceeds to pin the escape solely on Dong-hyuk, claiming that Kyu-nam is a hero for capturing him.

The newly elevated Kyu-nam is brought to a banquet at a palatial estate farther away from the border. With a storm threatening to shift his carefully mapped mines, his chances of ever escaping seem unlikely.

As Kyu-nam tries to cope with new obstacles, the script reveals his childhood friendship with Hyun-sang. The dynamics of their relationship add a significant degree of tension to the film. No one’s motives are clear, especially when additional characters and complications arrive.

Once Kyu-nam manages to break free from the banquet, the script’s intricately plotted reversals are replaced by increasingly far-fetched heroics. Kyu-nam heads back to prison to free Dong-hyuk, who is subsequently serverely wounded. Rebel nomads suddenly turn up when the fugitives face certain capture.

Lee Je-hoon’s terse, no-nonsense performance helps keep the film grounded, no matter how fanciful the script gets. Koo Kyo-hwan, who played a flamboyant assassin in Kill Boksoon, has more fun with his role as the effete Hyun-sang.

Escape doesn’t pretend to be balanced. Its North Korea is a hellhole of repression, starvation, and corruption. Officers swill liquor and stuff themselves at buffet tables; members of the infantry are grunts with no future.

The filmmakers still finds ways to add nuance to the propaganda. Visually the film alternates between tight closeups in offices and cells with large-scale action sequences that unfold in fields and forests. If you can swallow the improbable twists, Escape is a taut ride.

Available on Blu-ray and DVD from Well Go USA. Photos courtesy Well Go USA. Visit the official site for more information.