A young girl, a lost soul, redemption, and an epic knife fight! Who could ask for more?

In this 2010 Korean film, a quiet pawnshop clerk with a secret and violent past takes on a drug-and-organ trafficking ring in hope of saving the child who is his only friend.

Written and directed by Jeong-beom Lee, this film stars Won Bin as Cha Tae-shik, an ex-special agent, and Sae-ron Kim as Jeong So-mi, the unwanted daughter of a murdered erotic dancer.

The plot …

Cha Tae-shik’s only connection to the world is a little girl named Jeong So-mi, who lives next door. Her mother, Hyo-Jeong steals drugs from a drug trafficking gang and hides the drugs in Tae-shik’s pawnshop without his knowledge.

The drug smugglers discover her theft and kidnap both Hyo-jeong and So-mi. Tae-shik is suddenly yanked back into the world he has been hiding from in a frantic search to find So-mi. In order to save the girl, he makes a deal with the drug-and-organ trafficking gang, but is set up to take the fall for Hyo-jeong’s murder.

So-mi is still nowhere to be found and the clock is running out for the little girl. And to make matters worse, the police are now after Tae-shik. With both the police and the gang after him, Tae-shik’s hidden past is slowly revealed, and it is beginning to look like he may be too late to save So-mi.

My thoughts …

I love this movie and have watched it several times. It is filmed in Korean, and I watch it with subtitles. I tried watching it dubbed in English once, and well, I just hate it when the moving lips don’t match the words. But, that’s just me.

There are a few places in which this movie is a bit tricky to follow, which is why I originally watched it a second time. I guess now, I have seen it four or five times over the years.

The martial arts action scenes are extremely well done, and near its end, this film boasts one of the best cinematic knife fights to ever hit the silver screen!

The film is a bit graphic and for those who don’t like realistic violence, it may be a bit hard to watch. However, it is not overdone … just real. It will also take you through an entire gambit of human emotions. And for me, at its core, I think this is a terrific film about human redemption, although perhaps in a more secular form.

I used to stream this on Netflix, but it is no longer available from them, so I ordered a DVD from Amazon.com. I wanted to check out the epic knife fight scene again as research for a knife fight scene I am writing in my upcoming sequel to Serpents Underfoot, the sequel is titled Montagnard.

I understand The Man from Nowhere is now available to stream from Prime Video where it is Amazon’s Choice for Korean films. If you like realistic action, drama, martial arts, and foreign films, this is a movie for you!