Review: ‘Hijack 1971,’ starring Ha Jung-woo, Yeo Jin-goo, Sung Dong-il and Chae Soo-bin

July 5, 2024

by Carla Hay

Ha Jung-woo and Sung Dong-il (pictured in front) in “Hijack 1971” (Photo courtesy of Sony Pictures International)

“Hijack 1971”

Directed by Kim Seong-han

Korean with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in South Korea and North Korea in 1971 (and briefly in 1969), the action film “Hijack 1971” (based on real events) features an all-Asian cast of characters representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: A disgraced military airline pilot in South Korea comes back from a hiatus to co-pilot a commercial flight, only to have the flight hijacked by a terrorist who is sympathetic to North Korean politics.  

Culture Audience: “Hijack 1971” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and suspenseful, action-packed hijack movies.

Yeo Jin-goo in “Hijack 1971” (Photo courtesy of Sony Pictures International)

“Hijack 1971” delivers everything that viewers can expect from a high-octane, well-acted thriller about a plane being hijacked in the air. The fact that this movie is based on a true story makes it more interesting. “Hijack 1971” does a very good job of showing the human stories behind this terrifying experience.

Directed by Kim Seong-han and written by Kim Kyung-chan, “Hijack 1971” is based on real events, but the names of the characters have been changed to be different from the real-life people. The movie begins on December 11, 1969, by showing a fateful event that has a profound effect on the movie’s main protagonist. Tae-in (played by Ha Jung-woo), who is a compassionate and friendly, works for a South Korean Air Force unit that is in charge of protecting commercial aircraft. This character is based on the real-life Park Wan-gyu.

On this day, Tae-in and his younger pilot colleague Choi Dong-cheol (played by Kim Dong-wook) are patrolling in the air above South Korea, when they see that a Korean Air Lines YS-11 plane going from Gangneung for Seoul has been hijacked. The hijackers took over the NAMC YS-11-125 aircraft and forced it to fly to Pyongyang, North Korea.

During this hijacking, Tae-in could see inside the hijacked plane and noticed that his supervisor Seo Min-soo (played by Choi Kwang-il) was piloting the plane without his co-pilot. Tae-in then makes the decision to not follow military protocol to shoot at the plane’s engine, in order to scare the hijackers. Tae-in’s reasoning is that he didn’t want to do anything that would anger the hijackers, who could then harm the innocent people on the plane.

Because the hijackers got away with taking the plane with hostages to North Korea, Tae-in and Dong-cheol are blamed for it, and they both get suspended. However, Tae-in gets a harsher scolding for it because he is a more experienced pilot and has a higher military ranking than Dong-cheol. Over the next several days, after tense negotiations, 39 of the 50 hostages were let go and were allowed to return to South Korea.

Tae-in becomes depressed over this suspension and begins to doubt his abilities as a pilot who can keep people safe. His supportive wife Moon-young (played by Im Se-mi) is the only person who reminds him that he did save lives, but Tae-in wants to win back the respect of his peers. Tae-in gets a chance to prove his worth when he is assigned to be the first officer pilot for a civilian Korean Air Lines on January 23, 1971. The aircraft is Hotel-Lima 5212. In real life, the aircraft was Fokker F27 Friendship 500.

The captain of the plane is Lee Gyu-sik (played by Sung Dong-il), who is calm and professional. Gyu-sik is based on the real-life Lee Kang-heun. Gyu-sik is aware that Tae-in is coming back from a suspension, but he is not judgmental and thinks Tae-in has a right to prove his merit on this flight. Meanwhile, a few of the flight attendants in the back are gossiping about Tae-in because they know why he was suspended.

The people on this airplane soon find out that there’s a hijacker of this flight: His name is Yong-dae (played by Yeo Jin-goo), a lone terrorist who in his early 20s. He has crude homemade hand grenades and a gun as weapons. The Yong-dae character is based on the real-life Kim Sang-tae.

Just like the hijacking in 1969, this motive for this hijacking is for the plane to go to North Korea. During the course of the movie, Yong-dae expresses his disillusionment with South Korea’s capitalist/democratic government and says that Koreans are better off living a North Korean communist way of life. Yong-dae mentions that his brother was one of the hijackers in the 1969 flight, and he says his brother is a hero in North Korea because of this hijacking. Flashbacks in the movie show why Yong-dae has become such an angry and violent terrorist.

“Flight 1971” has tension-filled suspense from the beginning of this hijacking until the end. The movie’s cinematography and visual effects are superb at immersing viewers in this experience. Some of the camera work is meant to evoke feelings of claustrophobia and dizziness, especially in scenes where the plane gets out of the pilots’ control.

Yong-dae is a loose cannon who frequently storms into the cockpit. He made his first hijacking move on the flight by throwing a hand grenade at the cockpit door. During Yong-dae’s attacks inside and outside the cockpit, plane captain Gyu-sik is injured in his eyes and becomes blind, possibly permanently. It should also come as no surprise that Tae-in also gets wounded. The flight attendant who is the main focus of the story is Lee Ok-soon (played by Chae Soo-bin), who does her best to try to keep the passengers calm.

Most of the passengers are anonymous. Those who have names in the movie are not given much of backstory. There’s an elderly woman from a farm who brings a chicken on board with her. A man who works as a prosecutor is traveling with his blind mother. An English teacher named Lee Soo-hee (played by Jeong Ye-jin), who works at Woochang Middle School, is accompanying a student named Lee Han-bong (played by Moon Woo-jin) as his adult guardian for the flight. A man named Nam-il (played by Kim Chul-yoon) is a newlywed who is on this plane flight to meet up his wife for their honeymoon

The main focus of “Hijack 1971” is on how the hero pilots (especially Tae-in) handle this crisis caused by this violent terrorist. It’s a test of their physical and emotional strength. In his performance as Tae-in, Ha does a very good job of portraying the inner turmoil of Tae-in, who feels had additional responsibility to prove he can stop this hijacking when he was deemed a “failure” the previous time he had a chance to stop a hijacking.

Tae is still reeling from criticism that he “wasn’t brave enough” in his previous hijacking incident. He now has to make split-second, life-or-death decisions now that he is in the middle of another hijacking. All of the cast members capably handle their roles, but Tae-in is the character that the movie reveals the most about, in order for viewers to feel the most invested in this character. Whether or not viewers know the real-life outcome of this hijacking, “Hijack 1971” is still worth seeing for this unforgettable story.

Sony Pictures International released “Hijack 1971” in select U.S. cinemas on July 5, 2024.

Review: ‘Ransomed’ (2023), starring Ha Jung-woo and Ju Ji-hoon

August 8, 2023

by Carla Hay

Ha Jung-woo and Ju Ji-hoon in “Ransomed” (Photo courtesy of Well Go USA)

“Ransomed” (2023)

Directed by Kim Seong-hun

Korean and Arabic with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in 1986 and 1987, in Lebanon, South Korea, and Switzerland, the action film “Ransomed” features a predominantly Asian cast of characters (with some white people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A South Korean diplomat, who is assigned to duties in the Middle East, goes to Lebanon to rescue a kidnapped colleague, and the diplomat teams up with a rebellious taxi driver, who’s a South Korean living in Lebanon, as they make an unlikely duo for the rescue mission.

Culture Audience: “Ransomed” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in watching thrilling action films that use the tried-and-true storyline of a seemingly mismatched duo learning to work together for a common goal.

Ha Jung-woo in “Ransomed” (Photo courtesy of Well Go USA)

“Ransomed” uses a familiar formula of a bickering duo forced to work together in stressful situations. However, this suspenseful political thriller transcends its clichés by having great action sequences and believable performances from the principal cast. “Ransomed” is set in the 1980s, and it’s filmed as a throwback homage to 1980s live-action films, by having action sequences done by real people, not generated by excessive computer imagery.

Directed by Kim Seong-hun, “Ransomed” takes place briefly in 1986 and mostly in 1987. An opening statement shown on screen says that the story is “based on true events,” but many parts are fiction. The “true events” part of the story is about the real-life 1986 kidnapping of Do Chae-sung, who was a second secretary of the Korean embassy and was abducted in Beirut, Lebanon. Kim Jung-Yeon and Yeo Jung-mi wrote the gripping screenplay for “Ransomed.”

The beginning of ransom takes place in Beirut, where thousands of people are dying in Christian/Muslim conflicts. Amid this turmoil, a South Korean diplomat named Oh Jae-seok (played by Kim Jong-soo), a married father who has been assigned to work in Lebanon, is kidnapped by gunpoint by a group of Lebanese terrorists. He’s thrown into the trunk of a beat-up Mercedes and goes missing for a year. During that time, many people assume that Jae-seok is dead.

Meanwhile, in 1987, at the Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs, one of Jae-seok’s colleagues has grown frustrated in the job. Lee Min-jun (played by Ha Jung-woo), a Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs director in his 40s, and has just been passed over for a promotion to be assigned to the South Korean embassy in London. The job instead went to a younger man, who is praised during a meeting as being an “heir apparent,” which implies that he got the job because of nepotism. Min-jun wanted to transfer to London instead of the war-torn Middle East, where Min-jun has been assigned to be diplomat.

Min-jun complains to his boss about someone with less experience getting the job opportunity that Min-jun wanted. Min-jun’s boss responds by saying that the other man got the job because he’s was a political science major at the University of Seoul. Min-jun mutters that he’s tired of these University of Seoul grads taking the jobs of more qualified people. Min-jun is so bitter about not getting the promotion, when he’s alone in the office, he sprays pesticide on a bouquet of congratulator flowers that his office rival has on this desk.

Min-Jun will soon have bigger things to deal with than jealousy over a younger colleague. It isn’t long before Min-jun gets a strange phone call at work. The person on the other end of the line is not speaking. Instead, whoever is calling Min-jun is tapping out a special code that only people who work for the Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs are supposed to know. The coded message says that the person calling is identifying himself the long-lost Jae-Seok.

Min-jun faces skepticism from many people about this phone call. To get to the bottom of the mystery, the Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs consults Richard Carter (played by Burn Gorman), a British expert on the Middle East and a private political investigator for hire. Richard is up for the challenge of finding Jae-seok, but only if Richard is paid well for this job.

As a compromise, Min-jun says that Richard will only get paid if he shows “proof of life” for Jae-seok. It takes a little while, but that proof finally comes from a photo taken of Jae-seok holding up a recent newspaper with the date of the newspaper clearly shown. Keep in mind, this is in 1987, when Photoshop and other image-altering computer technology did not exist.

Richard tells the Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs that Jae-seok’s kidnappers are terrorists who want a fortune in cash, as ransom money to release Jae-seok. The terrorists insist that the money has to be paid by the South Korean government. Min-jun goes to Switzerland to enlist the help of a wealthy man named Hay Shaito (played by Marcin Dorociński) on arranging where the ransom drop-off

It doesn’t take long for Min-jun to go to Lebanon, where he encounters several obstacles during his time there. While in Lebanon, Min-jun soon meets a taxi driver named Kim Pan-su (played by Ju Ji-hoon), who is originally from South Korea. Pan-su is a Vietnam War veteran, who later admits he “went mad” after his time in this war. Pan-su is married to a Lebanese woman named Layla (played by Nisrine Adam), who is a stereotypical “worried wife at home” in this male-dominated action film.

Someone else who gets involved in this kidnapping rescue is a Lebanese intermediary named Karim (played by Fehd Benchemsi), who helps Min-jun convert the ransom money into Lebanese cash. Karim, who is accustomed to dealing with terrorists, also gives Min-jun advice on how to deal with these terrorist kidnappers and how to plan to bring Jae-seok safely back to South Korea.

Min-jun needs Pan-su to be his translator and to teach Min-jun how to adjust to being in Lebanon as someone who is originally from South Korea. To further entice Pan-su into helping, Min-jun tells Pan-su that Min-jun can arrange for Pan-su and his wife to get a U.S. visa.

These two unlikely partners have opposite personalities, Min-jun is very orderly and “by the book.” Pan-su is a freewheeling loose cannon. Min-jun doesn’t know if he can fully trust Pan-su. A series of events force them to work together to keep each other alive.

“Ransomed” has some aspects of the story that seem far-fetched by actually makes some sense, under the circumstances. Min-jun is essentially the only Korean Foreign Ministry of Affairs official who’s going to be the one dropping off the money. Why doesn’t Min-Jun have more backup from his colleagues?

It’s explained in the movie that the terrorists have spies who are checking to see if Min-jun is planning an ambush with his colleagues or law enforcement. Typically, in a kidnapping ransom dropoff, the kidnappers only want to see one person dropping off the money. An exception is made for Min-jin, who relays a message to the terrorists through Karim, that Min-jin needs Pan-su to be with him as a translator.

As is expected in this type of action flick, there are car chases and shootouts. However, these scenes are better-than-average because of the skillful cinematography and the way these scenes are filmed to put viewers right into the action. Hardly any of it looks fake, although there are a few moments that look somewhat far-fetched in a “dangling from a building” scene.

Aside from the action scenes, the believable chemistry (sometimes friendly, sometimes hostile) between Min-jin and Pan-su will be what viewers will remember the most about “Ransome.” The argumentative conversations between Min-jin and Pan-sue are often intentionally comedic. The performances of Ha and Ju are completely entertaining to watch.

The last half-hour of “Ransomed” takes a turn into something more meaningful than just a “heroes versus villains” story. “Ransomed” also gives a realistic look at how the trauma of captivity can really damage someone and what human compassion looks like in the midst of death and destruction. “Ransomed” won’t be considered a classic action movie, but this adrenaline-packed movie gets the job done well in all the right places.

Well Go USA released “Ransomed” in select U.S. cinemas on August 4, 2023. The movie was released in South Korea on August 2, 2023.

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