HARBIN - Mark Reviews Movies

Harbin, Well Go USA

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Review by Mark Dujsik | January 2, 2025

There aren't many questions on the minds of the characters or the filmmakers in Harbin. The story is set in Korea in 1909, about four years after a treaty that eliminated any independence for the country and turned it into a territory of Japan. With that set, there is only one goal in mind: to fight.

Woo Min-ho, who also directed, and Kim Min-seong's screenplay is based on the deeds of a small group within the Koren Righteous Army—later to be called the Korean Independence Army—and, primarily, the group's leader Ahn Jung-geun. In the annals of Korean history, Ahn is figure of some national reverence, and Woo's movie treats him in that way, as well. As played by Hyun Bin, Ahn is less a character than an ideal—of honor in the face of horror and of nobility in even planning a political assassination.

To be fair to the actor and the writers, the aim here is far from biographical. The movie has about as much interest in Ahn's story and personality as it has with every other character here. That is to say it has little interest at all.

The heroes are heroic, only falling briefly into debates about tactics or suspicions that one of their own has become a turncoat. The villains are dastardly, from a Japanese officer who repays Ahn's refusal to summarily execute him by slaughtering an entire platoon of Korean fighters to the politician who becomes the target of the group's assassination plot. That second man is convinced nothing and no one good can come out of Korea, and his cold, calculating demeanor while riding a train toward his fate is all the movie requires from him.

The resulting story, then, is less about politics and ideas, because it's entirely about action—from a grisly battle sequence at the start to a chase through city streets—and the basics of a clandestine mission—assembling a team, getting the right tools, finding the right opportunities, adjusting as circumstances demand. Meanwhile, the characters seem capable of discussing only two things: the mechanics of their plan and the motive behind it.

The movie has a one-track mind, which certainly limits much of what it can do. For all of Woo's undeniable style, those limitations keep this from being anything more than a serviceable but shallow history lesson with a focus on action and melodrama.

The action is notable, especially during that opening battle, when Ahn leads a group of soldiers to ambush a Japanese military camp. The fighting is brutal—with fists pummeling foes, knives slicing assorted bodies, and longer blades slashing and hacking as geysers of blood erupt. After the fighting's apex, Woo's camera sits still, taking in the final, exhausted blows and cuts of some soldiers amidst the carnage of what has happened. The movie may not have much, if any, sympathy for the other side of its story, but that haunting moment hints at least some weariness for the cost of war.

Ahn certainly possesses that feeling, too, allowing Japanese officer Mori (Park Hoon) to go free as a prisoner of war, despite his comrades' insistence that all of the captives be killed on the spot. Mori eventually makes it his personal mission to find Ahn, and as soon he is tasked to stop the assassination of Itō Hirobumi (Lily Franky, filled with chilly malevolence), the Japanese officer has an official reason to carry out his vengeance against the man who, in his mind, humiliated his honor by allowing him to live after defeat.

The rest of the plot really is about Ahn and his co-conspirators, primarily Kim Sang-hyun (Jo Woo-jin) and Woo Deok-soon (Park Jeong-min), traveling across Korea and Manchuria by train and on horseback to gather equipment, find additional allies, and determine the best location to kill Itō. Among those helping the team are Ms. Gong (Jeon Yeo-been), a war widow who happens to be a skilled fighter and explosives expert herself, and the bandit Jeom-chul (Jung Woo-sung), who has become cynical after years of fighting and death. There's some thoughtfulness in the scene with the bandit, although his words are intentionally undermined by the filmmakers turning him into a drunken fool.

As for the bulk of the plot, Mori's men get closer to Ahn's team, interrupting certain plans and using a mole to gain some information. The period setting and costuming, not to mention Hong Kyung-pyo's shadowy cinematography, give the material the aura of a traditional noir, as men in overcoats and fedoras have secret meetings in darkened rooms and dimly lit train compartments (The story's era may precede that cinematic movement, but the mood here matches it, regardless). The higher-ups in the Korean operation try to determine the mole's identity, as Ahn keeps being pushed further into the background.

It is, ultimately, his story, though, once everything and everyone are in place for the operation to unfold. Harbin doesn't want us to question anything about its story—especially whether or not the final act had any immediate or long-term impact on Korean independence (The postscript definitely makes one wonder). The movie has the simplicity of a neatly constructed and occasionally clever thriller, but within the bigger picture of the politics surrounding these characters and their actions, one can't help but feel the filmmakers have shortchanged the history, the figures, and the ideas of this tale.

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