Our latest film from the region of South Korea is entitled “Special Delivery”, and I couldn’t help but feel that the filmmakers of this movie watched “Baby Driver” and got the inspiration to do their own spin.
Blame Modern American Cinema for putting a stigma on action movies with a female lead. Because when Progressive writers envision a movie with a female lead, they envision a female taking a role from a male lead instead of utilizing the woman in the story. But because the societal poison known as Marxism hasn’t taken over South Korea’s society yet, this is a movie that doesn’t have that problem.
‘Special Delivery’ is a story about a delivery driver named Eun-ha (Park So-dam). Eun-ha Is a masterful driver with a 100% success rate in her deliveries. When shady individuals try to get Eun-ha to work for their organization, she declines. But one night after taking a job that she knew was going to be bad from the start, she is involved in an unexpected incident with a young child (Jung Hyeon-jun) who boards her car.
A dirty cop demands information held by his father and wants to hold the boy as ransom until he gets it. With the boy’s mother being no help to the situation, Eun-ha is forced to protect a child from a group of dangerous individuals who will do anything to get their hands on him.
Park So-Dam has gained notoriety for her supporting role in the Oscar-winning film “Parasite” which was praised for its supposed anti-capitalist views. What are the things that you’ll notice right off the bat while watching this movie is the film’s choice of music. A big reason why you get a lot of comparisons to the film “Baby Driver” is the fact that you have a protagonist who’s very good at being a driver but doesn’t seem interested in the world of the criminal underbelly. The film uses music to amplify the action sequences that are well done within some solid set pieces.
Park So-Dam is a solid leading actress and her portrayal in the film doesn’t force her to sacrifice her likability for the sake of reflecting the “modern world.” Park So-Dam’s character doesn’t single-handedly clear an entire room of foes in hand-to-hand combat but instead gives her a platform to use her wit and speed to take advantage of her enemies.
The action and the driving sequences in this film are very impressive. However, the film goes so hard so fast in terms of his action that the film loses theme in the third act and starts to drag across the finish line. The film has a very impressive action sequence involving a parking garage that would have been a satisfying conclusion to the film but the movie then continues for another 30 to 40 minutes never recapturing that momentum.
Not to mention the South Korean trope of the crying and unreasonable child also wears thin the deeper into the store you get. There’s a lot to like about a film like ‘Special Delivery’ despite the issues that the film has with editing and pace. ‘Special Delivery’ showcases some great retro filmmaking while stringing audiences along with some action along the way.
3/5
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