Korean cinema has developed certain genre expectations over the years, and those external pressures seem to dictate a lot of what gets made and distributed internationally. Violent revenge and romantic comedy seem to be the two areas that encompass much of people’s perception of Korean films thanks to break-out hits like Old Boy and My Sassy Girl having spawned dozens of hopeful imitators. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing as numerous quality films have released under these generic genre banners, but it’s still nice to see Korean filmmakers moving outside those comfort zones. Ryoo Seung-wan‘s The Berlin File doesn’t necessarily break new ground within the action/spy genre (thanks to predecessors like JSA and Shiri), but for one of the first times the action and drama takes place entirely outside of Korea. The film follows a North Korean spy stationed in modern-day Berlin who is framed by his own agency when a deal turns deadly. He and his estranged wife, who’s also been implicated, are forced on the run with agents from both sides of the Korean peninsula chasing after them. The plot grows ever complicated, too much so unfortunately, but the action set-pieces including gunfights and hand-to-hand combat are impeccably done and exciting as hell.

From a cinematic export standpoint, there is no greater thing coming out of Korea than pure and beautiful violence. Some of the brutality we’ve seen from Korea’s best and brightest absolutely blows away anything even dreamt about by American filmmakers. And with his second film, The Yellow Sea, Na Hong-jin has joined the legions of Korean blood auteurs with a film that is organic, fresh and full of some of the most dazzling hatchet-on-knife-on-hatchet violence to be seen on screens of any size this year.