Nowhere to Hide

Nowhere to Hide undermines the genre expectations of the ‘ordinary’ gangster film in every respect. Most striking are the dizzying visual manipulations. Lee Myung-Se uses slow motion, freeze frames and the most amazing colours to design the countless fights. Action scenes are set in unexpected places and on occasions the screen itself is peppered with bullets. The sequence of inventions in this new form of magic-realist cinema are accompanied by a gentle babbling of Korean pop music. While the heroes and the very special effects seem to come straight out of a comic strip, Lee did a lot of research into the precise way the police operate. The story is set in a couple of weeks in a harbour town, a centre for drug deals. A drug boss is stabbed to death in broad daylight by narcotics magnate Chang Sungmin. Chang flees to escape a team of cops led by the wily detective Woo, and manages to stay out of the hands of the police for 72 days. During the hunt, Woo and his men find themselves on the trail of other shady crooks, but also the drug hero’s great love. Chang finds a way out of all tight corners, even down a coal mine.