[HanCinema's Film Review] "Mission Cross"

Despite being billed as a comedy, "Mission Cross" isn't really funny. I don't mean that it's unfunny, exactly, the script just doesn't really put that much of an emphasis on humor. Kang-moo (played by Hwang Jung-min) is a former special forces operative who left his job because he was ashamed of himself for failing Jung-san (played by Kim Joo-hun), another agent who met an unfortunate fate on the job. Mi-seon (played by Yum Jung-ah) is oblivious to this, somehow, despite being a fairly badass cop in her own right.

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"Mission Cross" is interesting less for any of the spy action movie shenanigans as it is for the strangely subdued relationship between Kang-moo and Mi-seon. When we're first introduced to the pair, Kang-moo is trying to sneak money from his wife's wallet, which she allows, because he's kind of a loser and Mi-seon considers herself unlucky to have married him. When Mi-seon becomes aware of evidence suggesting Kang-moo is cheating, she can't quite decide how mad this makes her.

Hwang Jung-min is, if nothing else, remarkably well-cast as Kang-moo because he really does get across the contradiction inherent in Kang-moo seeming like a loser (mostly because he's still depressed about Jung-san) while still being a very affable, likable fellow, to the point that Mi-seon's subordinates are reluctant to defame him. Mi-seon hesitates, rather than actually confronting Kang-moo, despite the lack of any other obvious explanation for his behavior. And then she somewhat hilariously immediately realizes that Kang-moo wasn't cheating on her upon learning information that doesn't actually contradict this theory in the slightest.

Why is Mi-seon together with Kang-moo at all? Well, because for all his most annoying moments, Kang-moo is a good guy who Mi-seon can trust. So when they inevitably, finally team up in the movie's final act, the action scenes are quite gratifying. There's no drama, no hesitation, just Kang-moo and Mi-seon working together in tandem to blow away hordes of goons who don't have a chance against his specialized technique and her raw firepower.

As far as the quality of the action scenes themselves, they're...OK. They're not bad, but sort of in the same way that "Mission Cross" isn't funny. They're just not that much in focus. Despite the poster for "Mission Cross" featuring the leads walking away from an explosion, this isn't an especially bombastic movie. To the contrary, until that final act, it's mostly just an investigative mystery as Kang-moo tries, with limited information, to figure out what exactly happened to Jung-san.

For whatever it's worth, "Mission Cross" has been gaining momentum on the Netflix charts. It currently ranks as the fourth most popular film on the streaming platform worldwide, although its only number one rankings are in Asian regions where South Korean content usually performs well on the platform. Quality-wise, I'd rank it as somewhat above average- there are enough ideas here to qualify as interesting, and the presentation is decent. But "Mission Cross" is only a good movie, not an especially impressive one.

Written by William Schwartz

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"Mission Cross" is directed by Lee Myung-hoon-I, and features Hwang Jung-min, Yum Jung-ah, Jeon Hye-jin-II, Jung Man-sik, Cha Rae-hyung, Lee Ho-chul. Release date in Korea: 2024/08/09.