1
SKITC
Probably within reach of a coffee
The spy is strong but spy show is weak
The spy genre has some of the biggest franchises in the global entertainment biz: Bond. Bourne. Jack Ryan.
“The Veil” takes being part of the spy family seriously, unwaveringly seriously. Namgoong Min as Han Ji Hyuk, ace spy, has all the physical attributes. He looks like he could step in any pro level MMA ring and hold his own. The business suit attire scarcely conceals Ji Hyuk's prodigious musculature. But playing a hero is more than muscle and while Han Ji Hyuk checks a lot of boxes (amnesia, rule-breaking persona, tactical genius, piercing glare), something is missing. He’s such a cold-calculating assassin type, the character ends up so robotic that he’s difficult to cheer for. The speech is monotone. The face is expressionless. The clothing is black and white. Even when he fights, he's so brutally efficient at it that there's not much entertainment value there either.
The other significant issue of “The Veil” is one of the necessary elements of any good vs. evil story - someone to root against. A worthy villain is indispensable. So here, a very bad guy (a drug dealer) pops up quickly early on. But the focus then changes as it turns out someone else is behind him. Then there’s a rogue NIS agent. No wait, it’s a whole secret gang. Or no, it's a secret faction in the NIS. And North Koreans are involved somehow? Wait, no there is some other bad guy pulling the strings. Not that one. Another one. But maybe let’s humanize the character.
[sigh]
Without someone to coalesce some healthy dislike towards, it’s difficult to care whether our not-so-symphathetic hero succeeds or whether the entire cast simply sets sail into deep space to never be seen or heard from again.
Plenty of spy show cliches too. The car chases. The computer hacking. The agency turf battle. Oy.
It’s not entirely bad. Jang Young Nam brings her typical intensity but this time to a more rounded character. Jung Moon Sung is strong as the rogue NIS adversary of Han Ji Hyuk but he hardly establishes a presence in a too brief appearance. Kim Ji Eun’s Je Yi is a fairly nondescript character, but she infuses Je Yi with a spark of humanity and warmth. Park Ha Sun doesn’t have Jang Young Nam’s gravitas to really sell a spy role, but her hairstyle is killer. Grasping for straws here? Seems to be the case.
“The Veil” has some good elements. There’s some fine actors. There’s good action set pieces. There’s some above average production in the sound and photography. But the pieces don’t connect thanks to a collection of one dimensional characters, an unnecessarily convoluted plot and dialogue that could be cut-and-pasted from any number of other entries in the spy genre.
Not recommended.
“The Veil” takes being part of the spy family seriously, unwaveringly seriously. Namgoong Min as Han Ji Hyuk, ace spy, has all the physical attributes. He looks like he could step in any pro level MMA ring and hold his own. The business suit attire scarcely conceals Ji Hyuk's prodigious musculature. But playing a hero is more than muscle and while Han Ji Hyuk checks a lot of boxes (amnesia, rule-breaking persona, tactical genius, piercing glare), something is missing. He’s such a cold-calculating assassin type, the character ends up so robotic that he’s difficult to cheer for. The speech is monotone. The face is expressionless. The clothing is black and white. Even when he fights, he's so brutally efficient at it that there's not much entertainment value there either.
The other significant issue of “The Veil” is one of the necessary elements of any good vs. evil story - someone to root against. A worthy villain is indispensable. So here, a very bad guy (a drug dealer) pops up quickly early on. But the focus then changes as it turns out someone else is behind him. Then there’s a rogue NIS agent. No wait, it’s a whole secret gang. Or no, it's a secret faction in the NIS. And North Koreans are involved somehow? Wait, no there is some other bad guy pulling the strings. Not that one. Another one. But maybe let’s humanize the character.
[sigh]
Without someone to coalesce some healthy dislike towards, it’s difficult to care whether our not-so-symphathetic hero succeeds or whether the entire cast simply sets sail into deep space to never be seen or heard from again.
Plenty of spy show cliches too. The car chases. The computer hacking. The agency turf battle. Oy.
It’s not entirely bad. Jang Young Nam brings her typical intensity but this time to a more rounded character. Jung Moon Sung is strong as the rogue NIS adversary of Han Ji Hyuk but he hardly establishes a presence in a too brief appearance. Kim Ji Eun’s Je Yi is a fairly nondescript character, but she infuses Je Yi with a spark of humanity and warmth. Park Ha Sun doesn’t have Jang Young Nam’s gravitas to really sell a spy role, but her hairstyle is killer. Grasping for straws here? Seems to be the case.
“The Veil” has some good elements. There’s some fine actors. There’s good action set pieces. There’s some above average production in the sound and photography. But the pieces don’t connect thanks to a collection of one dimensional characters, an unnecessarily convoluted plot and dialogue that could be cut-and-pasted from any number of other entries in the spy genre.
Not recommended.
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