2020 was not a good year for anyone, let alone when talking about the year of cinema that it was.

Movies were shut down for a good portion of the year, and Hollywood gave up on cinematic releases as most of the world was shut down. The picks for the best movies of that year were slim. 

In a limited year, a little film from South Korea called Hitman Agent Jun was my pick for the best movie of 2020. Hitman: Agent Jun’s attention to detail and story set it apart from other 2020 films. The storytelling is engaging and doesn’t waste a detail in what is presented and its importance to the central plot. The characters are diverse in their style and personalities. 

While the comedy might work better for Korean audiences than international fans, many intangibles made it a must-see film. Fast forward 5 years, and the surprise hit of that year is back with a sequel.

When we last left Jun, he had just retired from a life of being a world-class assassin to take up becoming a mild-mannered web cartoonist. In Hitman 2, Jun gained brief fame as the creator of the webtoon Assassination Agent Jun, which told the story of numerous missions Jun had done but presented to the world as fiction.

Everyone loves the character until Jun realizes he’s told all the stories of his secret past and doesn’t have a new story to tell. This leads to the second season of his cartoon getting universally panned, with Jun asking himself if he has anything left to offer.

Meanwhile, as Jun is telling the stories of his past, the victims of these stories are realizing that someone is profiting off of their past pain, which is causing all of Jue’s enemies to travel to South Korea to find the culprit.

Things get even worse for him when a real-life terrorist attack mirrors the plot of Season 2, leaving Jun wrongly accused by the NIS of being the mastermind behind the crime. Jun has two options: expose his past to the world to prove his innocence or take the fall for a crime that could label him an enemy of the state.

It is hard to justify why Hitman needed a sequel 5 years after the original. The first film had a sense of charm and creativity, making it a smash hit with audiences during a difficult time. Hitman 2 takes a different approach to the point where the first hour doesn’t feel connected to the first film.

The movie has virtually no action for the film’s first hour. The story focuses on Jun trying to navigate his secret normal life by hiding his past from his wife and monitoring his daughter’s potential love interests. This may work for the run-of-the-mill family movie but not for those expecting the same action comedy they got the first time.

Jun’s rapping daughter doesn’t even spit a single verse in the movie despite being a highlight of the first film. The film begins to find a groove towards the second half, where the movie feels like what audiences remember from part 1.

The style of humor is still Korean comedy that borders on over-the-top and ridiculous. You can see an increase in the budget when it comes to the animation production of this film as Hitman 2 spends a lot of time and money on anime-style sequences that play up the webtoon portion of the film.

The film is enjoyable, but you can’t help but feel that this is a big step down from his predecessor. The technical aspects of the movie are well done from cinematography, animation, and production. However, the story this time around is too convoluted, as there are too many genres to juggle around and satisfy with the runtime given.

Hitman 2 is a major step from the hit film of 2020, and fans of the film may be better off skipping this adventure. A film that is disappointing for those who have seen the original and a middle-of-the-road movie for those who are viewing Hitman 2 cold. So much potential, but like Elon Musk’s birth control, it just falls short. 

2.5/5 

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