Save your money for something good and enjoyable

How sad is this?

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

I frequently complain against the espionage films which sacrifice intrigue and suspense in favor of the action. That's why I'm glad to say that the film The Berlin File combines both aspects with a remarkable expertise, offering us an interesting and complex screenplay, accompanied by solid action scenes overflowing of energy. Besides, the cosmopolitan atmosphere of the European settings increments the realism of a story which gets more complicated with every new scene. And I would also like to applaud the political subversion of the film, financed by the studio CJ Entertainment (the biggest one in South Korea), but with a North Korean main character. I don't know whether that might have been a mere political correction, or a genuine call to the cooperation between both nations... after all, what matters is the dramatic richness that that "small" detail brings to the narrative. Some people compared The Berlin File to the Jason Bourne saga, but it reminds me more of the TV series The Americans (even though it has more shootouts and martial arts), because it also handles an interesting moral disjunctive, putting us on the side of the "evil ones" in order to point out the fact the "good ones" might not be as much so as we had thought. And both also portray the tense family dynamic between spies who, besides of everything, also have to deal with the difficulties of marriage. Some couples discuss about financial matters; the husband and wife from The Berlin File talk about putsches or betrayals to the motherland. Anyway, the combination is very satisfactory. My only complaint against The Berlin File is that the intelligent screenplay occasionally employs clichés which feel a bit out of place, such as the talkative villain, and the convenient "don't kill him yet", when there's no valid reason to wait... except for creating the opportunity to the hero to escape. Nevertheless, that's a minor complaint, and it doesn't avoid me from enthusiastically recommending The Berlin File as an excellent espionage film.

"The Berlin File" is a South Korean version of action-thrillers with conspiracy and spy elements and twists in the key of "The Bourne Identity". The entire movie takes place in the German capital Berlin which gives the whole thing a more international flair even though some parts were clearly filmed in Latvia's capital Riga which feels a little bit goofy. The strongest points of the movie are the action scenes and in particular the brutal hand to hand combats. The special effects are also decent. The fast paced fighting sequences, the intriguing locations and the overall rather dark atmosphere of the movie quickly get you hooked.The acting is of an average quality. While the actors are good, the characters lack depth due to an average script quality. My favourite character is the evil North Korean agent because he really incarnates an unpredictable psycho that has a unique way to act and talk. The two main characters including a loyal North Korean agent and a rather straight South Korean agent are rather faceless on the other side.The weakest part of the movie is the conspiracy plot. The first thirty minutes of the film are pretty much confusing and introduce us to too many random different characters and stereotypical organizations: snobbish CIA agents, corrupt German politicians, brutal and closed- minded Islamist terrorists, intimidating Mossad agents, emotionless, loyal and silent on one side and loyal and pitiless North Korean agents on the other, bitter anti-communist agents from South Korea, Russian arms dealers and so on. The high amount of characters hides the fact that there isn't all too much going on concerning the story itself. The first half of the movie seems really promising but especially the last forty-five minutes are rather weak and mix overlong chasing and shooting scenes with wooden tearjerker moments. In the last five minutes, the movie pulls out a twist like a rabbit out of a hat. Usually, I like twisted endings and especially the South Korean cinema has come around with some promising closures in the past. This one here feels pretty much constructed though and only seems to be there to give some room for a possible sequel. I hope South Korea won't go this stretched Hollywood way. In the end, I expected a much more original and twisted conspiracy thriller from a country that has come around with the world's most innovating movies in the past fifteen years. "The Berlin File" is though only a good average to good action-thriller that can't mess with the status of the James Bond or Jason Bourne series. The clash between North and South Korean agents has been portrayed in more detailed and convincing ways in movies such as "Shiri", "Joint Security Area" and "Typhoon" for example. These three films are all above the quality of this one. I would still recommend this movie to faithful fans of international action-thrillers but this film had the potential to be much more than just easy entertainment. My final rating would be situated somewhere between six and seven points.

Lots of stereotypes perpetuated (bad guys for all of the following): Americans, Arabs; North & South Koreans; Germans. Whatever image you have for each of those groups - don't bother to alter it. Poorly written (difficult to follow) with lots of highly improbable events like different groups from the above all happening to show up at the same obscure spot at the same time; lots of dubious, if not down right dumb decision making (credulity stretching) by members of all those groups just to maintain 90 minutes of film activity. Usual fight scenes and shoot outs that make you go - pleeease, can't you come up with anything creative that hasn't been done in two thousand movies already. Example of an improbable, done before: Woman (with heavy backpack) falls from rooftop and at last second grabs gutter by fingertips with no more effort than if she were polishing her nails. Poorly edited resulting in a jump around, disjointed film. English as second language for most of the actors along with poor enunciation and audio level control (outside of subtitles for the Korean) makes most of the film (80%) difficult/impossible to listen to. I offer a similar, and much better, Korean movie, "Commitment" as a substitute.

This spy movie had me on the edge of my seat many times. This is a good fast-paced action, thriller, and drama with subtitles. The fight scenes were excellent, the stunt driving was top-notch; there was so much that was great about this movie. What I found so refreshing in this Korean movie, was the lack of blood and gore that Hollywood uses by the truckload. The subtitles sometimes moved too fast though. Ten lines of text about a movie is too much to say about a movie especially since one will give spoilers away. I choose not say what is in the movie but to say it was good. If one knows ahead of time what one will see then it will no longer be a surprise. That is wrong with all of the movie trailers because they give the movie away before we even pay to see it.