NOWHERE TO HIDE is a much-hyped South Korean action thriller that follows a much-used template: a dogged detective who will stop at nothing to track down a master-criminal against whom he has a personal vendetta. It's the kind of slim, pared-down storyline that's kept the thriller genre alive for the past sixty years or so and shows no signs of flagging thus far, and when played out in conjunction with Myung-se Lee's ultra-stylish direction it really should work. Sadly, though, the resulting film is hollow and superficial in the extreme: very stylish, yes, and great to look at, but ultimately unfulfilling.Myung-se Lee's problem is that he's far too interested in his cinematography and not in his own story, which doesn't really go anywhere. Lots of recent films are centred around detectives pursuing bad guys through the streets; THE CHASER, for instance, with its superlative pimp-vs-serial-killer shenanigans. But they have to have more than just action to make them work: likable characters, for one, and realism, combined with peppery dialogue. NOWHERE TO HIDE looks great, but that's all it has to say for itself.The film is a jumble of frenzied editing ranging from extreme slow motion, missing images, fast cuts, freeze frames and plenty more. Combined with a pumping soundtrack and a great use of colour, it's a fascinating visual experience. But the dickhead detective and the sullen criminals he pursues through the back streets are singularly uninteresting and the various chase sequences quickly become repetitive. By the end, there's enough material to have ably filled a ten-minute short; but at a two-hour run time, it's just too little to sustain the interest. In the end, NOWHERE TO HIDE is a missed opportunity.

The first and last 15 minutes of this movie are really engaging visually and vitalize your interest in the story. The problem lies with the middle of the movie where little is presented to keep with the pace of the action. The movie tries too hard to capture a tone of being constantly "bad-ass", and with this loss of cohesion surrounding the plot the film breaks apart in the 2nd act. I got bored amidst the slo-mo and camera effects, they were used too much in which they lost their emphasis after a while. Also it's difficult to understand the progression of the characters, not always clear what they're doing or why. It's a standard Heroic Bloodshed flick except the cinematographer is on ecstasy and the scriptwriter is on speed. There's an imbalance between the visuals and material. Regardless it's a very interesting crime film to watch, and if your a big fan of the Matrix you can check out where the Wachowski bros took some of their inspiration from. Other than that, there's not much here for moviegoers outside the incredibly specific niche of Asian crime dramas. -5/10

This is a diamond of a film but, like a diamond, it's not without its flaws. Thankfully, you can forgive the tiny defects and just sit back and enjoy some stunning film work.There so many excellent scenes in this movie that I'm not going to list them all but I will give extra credit to the opening scene, the waiting for the victim scene, the train scene and the final fight scene. (Compare this to the new Matrix Revolutions trailer where Smith and Neo are fighting in the rain). It's rare to see such fantastic direction in a film of ANY budget, let alone what the director had to work with here.True, there are a couple of set pieces that just don't work, like the rooftop fight, but even there you can see the pure inventiveness of the director at work. Maybe he was trying just a little too hard - but it's impossible to hold that against him because it works so well for the rest of the film.If you're after a film that delivers great visuals AND great direction, look no further than this one, it's a real gem.

Lee Myung-se is one of the most gifted directors of the contemporary "new wave" movement in Korean cinema. He is a director who's in love with the medium of film, and it shows in his dazzling Nowhere to Hide. The film's plot involves a standard cops and robbers chase, but that's not where its strength lies. This film doesn't bother itself much with "substance," e.g. richly developed characters with whom we can sympathize, a serious look at "the human condition," etc. Instead, Nowhere to Hide is all about style and the joy of making films. Lee's style is sort of an amalgamation of Wong Kar-wai (the visuals) and John Woo (the action), and Nowhere to Hide offers some sumptuous feasts for the eyes. To offer some salient examples: There is an early assassination sequence which is so beautifully shot and creatively edited that it plays out like an impressionist music video (and it also happens to be my favorite scene from any film of its year, 2000); There is a fight sequence which is done completely in shadows; And there is a final fist fight between a cop and robber in the rain that is wonderfully aesthetic. During many scenes of this film, Lee stretches, breaks, and otherwise "tweaks" the visual grammar of film to produce a work that is consistently challenging and thoroughly original. Seldom has "eye candy" been this sweet. This film might not have much by way of substance, but in terms of pure filmmaking craft and originality, it's pretty hard to beat.