This brutal Korean action thriller is a slick and stylish movie with shades of Taken about it. So-Mi Jeong is a little girl who lives across the hall from a reclusive ex-special forces agent called Cha Tae-Sik who owns a pawnshop. Neglected by her junkie mother she attaches herself to the man as the only sympathetic adult in her life. Cha is a sombre person scarred by the past when his pregnant wife is killed. When So-Mi is kidnapped and forced into child-labour and organ harvesting after her mother steals some drugs, Cha uses his skills and sets out on a bloody mission to free his only friend.
There is nothing we haven’t seen before plot wise and it’s not crammed with wall-to-wall action. What makes The Man From Nowhere work is its phenomenal pacing and exceptional acting from most of the cast. In the beginning you know next to nothing about Cha Tae-Sik but by the end of the movie a lot comes clear about why he acts the way he does. The real action takes awhile to hit but when it hits it really delivers. This was some of the most realistic and brutal action I’ve ever seen from Korea. A very impressive knife fight towards the end of the movie is worth your patience.
The acting between the 2 lead characters was amazingly touching. You really cared about these characters which gave strength to this movie. By the end you will almost be in tears. I highly recommend this movie to anyone who loves good revenge flicks. You won’t be disappointed!
Sadako’s Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5
Sadako's Movie Shack 
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