‘13 Bombs’
The espionage action-thriller “13 Bombs” acutely blends quick back-stabbing with big explosions. In the film, interest rates and economic inequality are running rampant in Jakarta, Indonesia. To even the odds, a Robin Hood-type group, led by a mysterious figure code-named Arok (Rio Dewanto), has planted 13 bombs across the city that will explode if thee group isn’t paid a ransom in crypto cash. As a result, two unwitting crypto traders named Oscar (Chicco Kurniawan) and William (Ardhito Pramono) are picked up by Karin (Putri Ayudya), a steely counterintelligence agent who is worried about a mole in her ranks.
The director Angga Dwimas Sasongko loves a good shootout, and this film brims with them. As Karin races through Jakarta, the highlights include a SWAT-led raid on an office building and an all-out assault on Arok’s hide-out. You could probably fill an entire theater with the number of bullets fired just in these two raucous scenes, and probably slice through glass with the film’s sharp and shattering editing.
‘The Childe’
Marco (Kang Tae-joo) is a boxer taking dives and using the payoffs to care for his ailing Filipino mother (Caroline Magbojos). His father is a rich Japanese man his mother had an affair with, and Marco is an outcast because of his mixed-ethnic parentage. A possible golden ticket arrives when his father, who he has never met and is now dying, flies him from the Philippines to Japan with promises of finally building a relationship. Instead, Marco is thrust into a power struggle between his wealthy half brother (Kim Kang-woo) and half sister (Jeong Ra-el) for the family business. Even worse, an assassin known as the Nobleman (Kim Seon-ho) has been hired to kill him.
While Marco is a sympathetic lead, it’s the zealous Nobleman — who switches from hunting Marco to befriending him — who is the real draw: He is gleefully sadistic, laughing as he savagely kills every goon the half brother sends after Marco. In a film with wonderful verticality — the camera tilts upward for exciting rooftop chases — Kim is extraordinarily athletic. By the final hallway confrontation in the bowels of a luxurious mansion, he is soaked in blood and loving it.
‘Mayhem!’
Recently released from prison, Sam (Nassim Lyes) is just trying to rebuild his life when a hit man comes for him. Sam fends him off but accidentally kills him and flees to East Thailand, where, five years later, now with a wife and child, he is working at a hotel. Desperate to fund his wife’s dream of starting a business, he starts transporting drugs for a local crime boss. When the deal goes awry, the kingpin murders Sam’s wife and kidnaps his daughter. And that’s only in the first 20 minutes!
“Mayhem!,” directed by Xavier Gens, is a slick revenge flick, given greater texture through its gory brawls. Sam’s mission is to retrieve his daughter, and he hunts down the crime boss to his well-guarded home. Sam’s dedication is exemplified in the film’s gnarliest scene, in which he tears a machete out of his forearm and uses his exposed bone to kill a goon. This is a man with a particular set of skills.
‘Midnight’
In “Midnight,” Do-sik (Wi Ha-joon) is a serial killer hunting women from his van. He nearly gets away with his crimes until two deaf women, a mother (Kil Hae-yeon) and her daughter, Kyeong-mi (Jin Ki-joo), catch him in the act of kidnapping a woman.
“Midnight,” by the Korean writer-director Kwon Oh-seung, is an action film about gaslighting and ableism; neither the police nor bystanders take Kyeong-mi’s account seriously. The film also features plenty of running: through traffic, down narrow alleyways, up sharp hills. The camera is an active participant, gliding smoothly with Kyeong-mi as she evades Do-sik, speeding toward a satisfying ending that’ll make you a believer.
‘Ransomed’
The film opens in 1986, after a Lebanese terrorist group abducts a diplomat. Twenty months later, the diplomat is still in captivity. After being passed over for a promotion, Lee Min-jun (Ha Jung-woo), the missing diplomat’s colleague, wants a mission to prove himself. That opportunity arrives when he gets a phone call from the hostage, disguised in Morse code. Min-jun flies to Lebanon, where he teams up with a selfish taxi driver, Kim Pan-su (Ju Ji-hoon).
With its unlikely pairing, “Ransomed,” directed by Kim Seong-hun, often recalls “Argo,” another action-adventure film about the extraction of hostages from an embattled country. The plan of escape is just as incredible as any chase, any explosion, or any piece of subterfuge (another similarity with “Argo”). Ha and Ju are a tremendous comedic pairing, both in physicality and tone. By the time they finally part, their separation hits like a serious aftershock.