REVIEW: Kwon Sang-woo is a secret agent who loves to draw in Hitman: Agent Jun
By Lim Yian Lu
Rating: PG13
Length: 110 minutes
Director: Choi Won-sub
Cast: Kwon Sang-woo, Jeoung Jun-ho, Hwang Woo Seul-hye, Lee Yi-kying
Korean action-comedy film Hitman: Agent Jun stars Kwon Sang-woo as Jun, the talented and skilled special agent of the National Intelligence Service (NIS) Shield Team. Jun became an orphan when both his parents died in a car accident. Since young, he loved to draw and aspired to be a webtoon artist. However, he was discovered by Deok-kyu, portrayed by Jeoung Jun-ho, whom he calls the NIS trainer from hell, and was pulled into a vigorous training to be part of the national special force dealing with terrorism.
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Despite being the cream of the crop, Jun never liked the job. He was often seen doodling away during briefing and even on the way to missions. Deep down, Jun wanted to escape from the Shield Team and move on to realise his dreams of becoming a webtoon artist. It was impossible to gain this freedom until he thought of a perfect plan: faking his death during a mission.
Jun succeeded in faking his death and thought that he could finally lead a normal life as a family man and a webtoon artist. To his dismay, his webtoons were less than interesting which only earned him peanuts and hate comments. Not wanting to feel defeated, Jun took the suggestion of his daughter and drew a webtoon of his past as a secret agent. Although Jun had no intentions of publishing the webtoon – the existence of Shield Team being top secret – his wife took the liberty of sending out the webtoon to his editor while he was drunk and asleep. Surprisingly, his webtoon went viral and became a hit.
While works of art tend to draw inspirations from real life, Jun is probably the idiot who created his supposedly fictional webtoon without changing any names and appearances of the characters. After putting the pieces together, the NIS and an organised gang who has a grudge against him found out that Jun was not only alive and kicking, but had in fact, changed his name and lived an ordinary life as Soo-hyuk. The hunt for Jun began, which threatened the lives of his loved ones.
As an action-comedy film, Hitman: Agent Jun is packed with fun-filled scenes on top of fighting and gunshot sequences. One of the most memorable scenes is when Jun is on the way to rescue his wife from his enemies who have kidnapped her. As his car approaches them, he swerved and made a U-turn right in front of them and drove away which made them bewildered. His wife was at first seen pleading him not to come as it would mean death, which quickly changed into cursing him for leaving her behind.
One thing that makes the movie stand out is how the story is told in both real acting and animation. A part of the movie, mostly about Jun’s past, is told based on the webtoon he drew, in animation style. In a way, you can get the best of both worlds in one movie.
If you are looking for a movie to watch which can help you unwind after a long day or a long week, look no further. Hitman: Agent Jun will make you laugh heartily and forget all your troubles as you get absorbed into the hilarious acting of Kwon Sang-woo and Jeoung Jun-ho.
3.5 out of 5 stars
Release date: 20 February 2020 (Singapore)
