(Movie Review) Good News
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| ▲ A still from "Good News," provided by Netflix, features South Korean officials from the movie. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) |
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| ▲ A still from "Good News," provided by Netflix, features Nobody, portrayed by Sul Kyung-gu. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) |
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| ▲ A still from "Good News," provided by Netflix, features Seo Go-myung, played by Hong Kyung. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) |
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| ▲ A still from "Good News," provided by Netflix, features Japanese officials from the movie. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) |
(Movie Review) Good News
(Movie Review) 'Good News' reimagines 1970 hijacking with biting wit, humor
By Woo Jae-yeon
BUSAN, Sept. 22 (Yonhap) -- In his latest black comedy, "Good News," director Byun Sung-hyun consistently explores one theme: The other side of the moon always exists, and truth remains stubbornly elusive.
The high-flying satire takes loose inspiration from the 1970 hijacking of Japan Airlines Flight 351, known as the Yodogo hijacking. The event was carried out by nine members of Japan's Red Army Faction who demanded the plane, originally on a Tokyo-Fukuoka route, be diverted to Pyongyang.
Their grand, if somewhat ludicrous, scheme was to use the North Korean capital as the stage for their "revolutionary" communist dream.
When a multinational covert operation is set in motion to safely rehijack the plane midair, which carries 120 people, including seven crew members, chaos follows.
At the center of the hectic, head-spinning satirical narrative is a mysterious South Korean fixer named Nobody, portrayed by Sul Kyung-gu. Behind the scenes, he hatches a zany scheme to land the plane at Gimpo International Airport in Seoul, which is disguised as Pyongyang's airport with "hanbok"-clad women performing a staged welcome, fake North Korean soldiers and signage reading "Pyongyang Airport."
Nobody brings in Air Force Lt. Seo Go-myung, a radar expert played by Hong Kyung. Go-myung's mission is to intercept radio signals to trick the hijackers into believing that they are speaking with North Korean aviation officials.
Through this scheme, Sul's character, ironically named Nobody, becomes the central figure in the film's satire, highlighting the foolishness of officials fixated on appearances and laying bare the absurdities behind state propaganda.
By employing direction that breaks the fourth wall, the director of the 2023 action thriller "Kill Boksoon" deliberately creates distance between the film's chaotic events and the viewers.
Sul's exaggerated portrayal of Nobody swings between the implausible and the believable, the normal and the absurd, shifting between active participation in events and detached observation through intermittent direct camera contact. With him, viewers are drawn into the story and pulled back again into observation.
Despite the demand for speaking in three languages -- Korean, Japanese and English, the rising star Hong delivered a remarkably grounded performance -- the most believable among the film's theatrical cast. Ryoo Seung-bum makes his first cinema appearance in six years as Korea's intelligence director, embodying the archetype of an incompetent and opportunistic government official.
The black comedy stubbornly questions the nature of truth, a theme that culminates in the final reveal that inspirational quotes attributed to "famous" figures throughout the film are in fact fake.
This exploration is established from the very beginning. The film opens with the disclaimer, "inspired by true events, but all characters and events portrayed are fictional," before posing the question, "What is the truth then?"
The Netflix original Korean film had its world premiere earlier this month at the Toronto International Film Festival and has also been invited to the Busan International Film Festival as part of the gala presentation.
"Good News" will be released on Netflix on Oct. 17.
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