weak plot does this one in

Rating: 6/10 (14 January 2005)

***minor spoilers**
I have to laugh when I see some people calling this a work of genius. The characters are cardboard set pieces in the sandbox of a weak writer. "Hypnosis" is frequently used as a device to cause the main characters to act sans mental phenomena. (hypnosis or memory don't work at all like the way suggested, the movie versions of these concepts are deus ex machina only with a different label) There is room in a narrative of control for character development but there is little conflict between man and that environment in this story, only slightly above average fight scenes that are unconvincing. (it's a comic book universe where one man takes on 30 or 50 or however many people at once because he was training by shadow boxing in an earlier scene)
There is a reference to "The Count of Monte Cristo" (or rather an acknowledgement of borrowing from that tradition), and there are obvious parallels, for example the protagonist in this learns from watching TV for 15 years, the Count of Monte Cristo books and a wise prison companion. They've essentially added one big twist to that basic story but the only way to make it work drains it of character and meaning.
Decent acting from Min-sik Choi can't save this one.
6.5/10