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To me, this movie is perfection.

Just perfect...

best movie i've ever seen.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Nevertheless, the approach is catchy and thrilling, there are multiple well exercised action and chasing scenes, and foreign viewers obtain additionally an overview of daily life and habits in South Korea (by the way, the country has higher standard of life than in many EU countries). True, the filmmakers have their paragons in Hollywood and Hong Kong, hence some unreal elements and protracted romantic scenes are included to please the viewers, to broaden the audience. The actors/actresses are yet credible and versatile, although the faces of supporting actors seemed identical to me at times... Anyway, the film is recommended to all those fond of Hollywood without its actors.

(Yeah I know the song is "You Really Got Me" but I couldn't think of a witty title)The posters and DVD cover are deceptive. Contrary to the image of a hot chick in a sexy slit dress holding a gun, this is not a sexy femspy flick. In fact you never get a good look at the female assassin until the very end; the story is completely from the point-of- view of two investigative agents trying to catch her, with very little info.So you'd think this is a whodunnit mystery, right? Not really that either. What you get is sortofa action love story with some nice political themes. When I say it's a love story, it's not just a standard boy-meets-girl thing, but it's actually an interesting triangle which is 1 part romance (a detective and a fish store girl) and 1 part "bromance" (detective and his buddy).All of this is set against the backdrop of a terrorist plot to blow up things & kill people, and that itself is set against the backdrop of political unrest between North & South Korea. There's a lot going on, and the 2 hr movie flies by without a boring moment. In fact it could've easily been an epic miniseries with all its interesting subplots, themes & messages.As an uninformed American, I thought it was a pretty good flick. But I feel like in order to get the full power, you'd need to be more familiar with the whole division between N & S Korea, why it happened, and how culturally & economically different the two countries are. Sorta like a non-American would have to learn up on the US Civil War before truly appreciating "Gone with the Wind". But in "Shiri" they do a pretty decent job of covering the backstory so I'm not complaining.The title "Shiri" is not the name of the assassin, as you might imagine, but actually it's the name of a type of fish that supposedly spawns in a different stream before returning to its "homeland". Throughout the movie we get similar metaphors aimed at the reunification of Korea, and indeed the whole plot centers around that idea.So with that in mind, the movie takes an interesting viewpoint showing both sides of the story (good guys & bad guys), and although the audience's sympathy is mostly with the "good guys", the point is that the 2 sides are not so different as you'd think.Symbolism, in particular fish symbolism, is very prominent. In between action scenes, there's a lot to think about. And of course I imagine the original Korean language version packs even more meaning. The subtitles seem a little inadequate sometimes.Like all Korean movies I've seen, this is really violent. But it's actually one of the tamer ones, with most of the violence being gunfire, no gross-out torture scenes or anything. Although we do see someone's head explode in lovely splattervision. Haha, that one was totally unnecessary too... but really awesome just the same!There's not much comedy in this film. It pretty much sticks to the point with minimal diversions."Shiri" is a well-justified use of your time. Imagine "Die Hard" (action) with a dash of "In the Line of Fire" (detective thriller) combined with "Black Sunday" (political intrigue) and a dash of romance & bromance, there you have it.

This is one of the worst Action/Thriller movies I have seen for some time. Contains an amusing amount of blood and violence at the beginning, setting a storyline that is full of patriotic nonsense. Normally one does not necessarily expect a sensible story line from an action thriller, but not it is not only the story line that is moronic. The cinematography is not much better. And the action is equally unoriginal and thus predictable. There really is nothing new in this terrorist action movie. Special effects are at best poor. And compare to effects used years ago in the action classics such as Die Hard (only then they were some what new and original!).I would not advise anyone to waste their time and to watch this movie, reading the telephone book for an hour and a half will prove more entertaining and will not give you as bad a headache as this film!

Shiri is a film that is more than just the sum of its parts. Surrounds the lives of a couple of secret agents in South Korea who are chasing after a mysterious North Korean assassin (par excellence). As with thriller the film twists and turns, but the real difference between this and many other movies of the ilk is that it takes in the feelings and emotions of the people in it on two major fronts. One is on a personal front (the relationship of one of the agents with his recovering alcoholic girlfriend) and the other is that of Korean Unification.Without giving too much away, this film builds and builds as the cat and mouse storyline sees the agents get increasingly frustrated with the their assassin always being one step ahead of them somehow.The film is takes from Heat and Nikita in particular, but has its own original strands. The lead actor from "OldBoy" (another Korean movie) dazzles in his supporting role, but the main trio are brilliantly acted also and hopefully we will get to see them again in various other films.Overall, a great movie. No aspect is overall, be it the action or the romance, but everything seems to blend in together well. Highly recommended for fans of South Korean film making, currently the finest in the world.