Detente in the Korean peninsula is set back 50 years by "Crossing," a richly lensed but politically black-and-white heart-tugger about refugees from the Nasty North en route to the Sympathetic South.
Detente in the Korean peninsula is set back 50 years by “Crossing,” a richly lensed but politically black-and-white heart-tugger about refugees from the Nasty North en route to the Sympathetic South. Old-style Cold War drama in modern tech garb, written by TV drama scribe Lee Yu-jin, could gain some local B.O. traction from lead thesp Cha In-pyo’s name on release June 26; offshore legs look wobbly.
Director Kim Tae-kyun is best known in the West for firecracker martial-arts actioner “Volcano High” (2001), but his helming here, though slick, is pretty standard. After three reels of poverty and quotidian misery, devoted dad Yeong-su (Cha), a one-time soccer star, slips across the border to find medicine in China for his dying wife, getting shuttled by people traffickers to a German embassy and ending up (counter to plan) in Seoul. Meanwhile, his son Jun (Shin Myeong-cheol) escapes a horrific labor camp and makes his way to Mongolia with other kids. Eschewing simple cuteness, Shin is good as the tyke, but Cha is less convincing as a North Korean. Christian subtext, involving a tiny Bible the uncomprehending Yeong-su carries, is especially squirm-worthy.
