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The Man from Nowhere

The Man from Nowhere

2010
Drama, Suspense/Thriller
1h 59m
An ex-special agent CHA Tae-shik's only connection to the rest of the world is a little girl, So-mi, who lives nearby. Her mother, Hyo-jeong smuggles drugs from a drug trafficking organization and entrusts Tae-shik with the product, without letting him know. The traffickers find out about her smuggling and kidnap both Hyo-jeong and So-mi. The gang promises to release them if Tae-shik makes a delivery for them, however it actually is a larger plot to eliminate a rival drug ring leader. (imdb)
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The Man from Nowhere

2010
Drama, Suspense/Thriller
1h 59m
Your probable score
Avg Percentile 63.6% from 1278 total ratings

Ratings & Reviews

(1278)
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Rated 29 Dec 2012
75
80th
There was a time when I resented Netflix, because I had sought out Takashi Miike films, and I owned a copy of Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance, and that made me cool. Then anybody could get those movies and I was right back to being a loser. But after seeing a number of random movies like this, that entertain in spades, that I would have otherwise never seen, I've no qualms with Netflix. Also, don't try to tell me owning those didn't make me cool. It's all I had and I don't have it anymore.
Rated 24 May 2011
90
94th
The Korean version of Man on Fire with one of the best knife fights ever filmed.
Rated 08 Feb 2011
74
59th
The Man From Nowhere is clearly inspired by Man on Fire and The Professional. While the acting is notoriously hammy in a few places and the melodrama gets to be a bit too much to bare, and sadly these instances often overlap, overall the film is a good one. It has some superb action scenes and if you're a fan of those "one man on a mission that will absolutely decimate everyone in his path" movies then this is a must see.
Rated 13 Aug 2011
72
62nd
A decent revenge-movie that could benefit from a tighter plot. When the villains are involved in kidnapping, organ harvesting, drug trafficking, credit card scams and child labour, it all becomes a bit of a mess. A few cool moments, but in the end it won't be as memorable as the competition.
Rated 15 Apr 2011
57
38th
Man on Fire with sexier haircuts.
Rated 02 Jan 2011
85
90th
This is one of the best action movies of 2010. It's like the Korean version of The Professional. It's not high art like Park-Chan Wook, but it's still really bad ass and fun.
Rated 17 Jan 2011
70
63rd
Glossy, stylish mix of Man on Fire and Leon with a script that feels a little light for the film's two-hour runtime. Acting-wise, standouts were the gangster brothers who put in great performances with their blend of menace and wackiness. Scenes of violence were disappointingly muted and clean up until the last 30-40 minutes, which, to sort of make up for it, are really really good in that department. Memorable for that and its visual flair, but not as great as I had hoped.
Rated 01 Feb 2011
40
39th
decent revenge film. it's a bit slow early on, but the climax is worth it.
Rated 22 Mar 2011
74
73rd
The knife fight at the end was cool...
Rated 22 Apr 2011
70
65th
The South Korean 'Man on Fire'. The bad guy in the white suit was over the top and the ending got more sappy than it needed to be but other than that this was pretty good.
Rated 31 May 2011
25
30th
"Seen in a forgiving light, it's a perfectly acceptable way to scratch your action-movie itch, but anyone feeling such a tingle will also have to concede that The Man From Nowhere never met a cliche that it didn't embrace."
Rated 05 Sep 2011
65
46th
It was hard for me to invest myself in the hideously over-the-top plot: where the villains perform practically every kind of evil, illegal act imaginable, and the mysterious, unstoppable hero is shown to have an absurdly dark past event. Nevertheless, the action scenes - too few and far between - are simply astonishing.
Rated 17 Sep 2011
75
71st
A sublimely brutal revenge fantasy Korean style with one of the nastiest knife fights i've seen on film. Unfortunately it retreads typical plot and character territory but it does so far better than 99% of similar straight forward revenge tales found in Hollywood. The violence and cruelty does go off the rails at times though. Although the intent of this sort of portrayal of violence is following with the fantasy. Won Bin is an understated charismatic actor and excels in this type of role.
Rated 13 Mar 2012
76
62nd
If the Professional stared Jason Borne. Slick action and better-than-average direction are the definite high points, while the scripts hovers over melodramatic. Koreans in a revenge flick...I swear I've seen this before.
Rated 26 May 2012
65
76th
Anyone knows more or less what they are handled going into a revenge flick, The Man from Nowhere follows the mold to the letter. As a viewer getting his fix of gratuitous violence I wasn't dissapointed. Production values and general attentiveness of the director to the core elements warrants a view to the action enthusiast.
Rated 13 Dec 2013
86
88th
Fucking Korean films, man. They're fucking wild. And they seem to be better than an American film with an identical plot, largely, I suspect, because there is less Hollywood injected into it's penis.
Rated 29 May 2014
68
40th
Felt like you've seen it all before. It doesn't contain that many action scenes, which isn't bad in itself, but the plot is struggling to carry the movie. A generic backstory for the protagonist, a villain who has to show you how evil he is constantly, an uninteresting side plot involving the police and a final where you feel emotionally cheated. The girl did a good job at being cute and the film's highlight was definitely the final action scene which was impressing, emotional and disturbing.
Rated 19 Oct 2017
81
78th
Like a Korean mix of "The Professional" and "Man on Fire." The action is well done, the story is relatively interesting, but it's just not original enough to be awesome. I'll gladly take a well made rehash of stuff we've seen before, but I'm not going to call it groundbreaking. It's worth checking out.
Rated 04 Jan 2018
70
69th
"Ajeossi" is kinda derivative - like a mixture of "Léon", "Oldeuboi" and "The Punisher" - yet very competently made. To be honest, it felt a little chaotic at times, but it maintained my interest and featured great action throughout, with the explosion, the knife fights and the bulletproof shield being absolutely memorable highlights. As for the closure, yes it was predictable, but it packed quite an emotional punch, so mission accomplished.
Rated 07 Apr 2019
90
91st
Even though it's set up like its contemporaries, this felt more special. It took the time to get me invested emotionally, with a tight script and a good performance from the little girl, so when shit started going down it felt earned. The action is brutal and exciting when it happens, but the final fight felt incredibly cathartic. And then stripping away the music for the one-on-one was an excellent choice as well. Had me blubberin', had me thrilled.
Rated 18 Dec 2023
89
90th
Sleek action, dark tone, very high stakes and terrific atmosphere helps establish Man from Nowhere as one of South Korea's best crime thrillers!
Rated 22 May 2011
85
80th
Korea is *killing* it lately! Picture a more visceral version of the Liam Neeson vehicle "Taken," with more pathos, more brutality, yet at the same time, more heart, more tragedy, and more emotion. A phenomenal action film.
Rated 30 May 2011
70
76th
Another great film from Korean cinema. If you like Taken and Man on Fire, this is for you.
Rated 12 Jun 2011
76
67th
this is how action films should be made, great performances, great action, original characters and semblance of a plot....Hollywood please take note.
Rated 29 Jun 2011
80
62nd
Not the most original story and didn't care much for the ending. Nonetheless, very well done and very enjoyable.
Rated 30 Jun 2011
70
63rd
That knife fight.
Rated 06 Jul 2011
60
31st
As others have mentioned, this is variation on *Leon: the Professional*, *Man on Fire* and even *Taken*. Of the four films, I personally like *Leon* the best, by far. Some other comments: except for the final 20-30 minutes, there isn't much action--although that wasn't necessarily a flaw. The bigger problem is the sense of struggle to make a plot that moves along and maintains interest. One other thing: the girl is really cute and effective.
Rated 06 Jul 2011
75
79th
Insane knife-fight, but as other have pointed out, maybe a tad too much melodrama.
Rated 08 Jul 2011
99
88th
fantastic! big fan of korean movies!?
Rated 27 Sep 2011
84
94th
Loved it. And this must be one of the best ending fight scenes ive ever seen. Great!
Rated 08 Nov 2011
86
77th
Sadly the focus is not on the martial arts. It's mostly on the slow action where the main character is investigating. The fighting scenes are not bad but the camera was a little bit shaky. A naive movie, not very innovative, but it left me with a good impression. The montage and the director of photography were totally awesome (with a few exceptions).
Rated 17 Nov 2011
72
57th
A well done thriller that while similar to other films in this genre manages to be better then most.This is due to a story that allows us to care about the main characters and that the direction is tight and keeps the film moving at a slow but steady pace.The short comings are that the the action comes in spurts and except for the title character and the little girl none of the other characters are that interesting.
Rated 30 Dec 2011
82
56th
Cheesy and gory, this is a good popcorn action flick. If you can hold in your popcorn of course.
Rated 25 Jan 2012
55
19th
Yet another Korean revenge flick. It's stylish and cool, like these films usually are, and the action was good. Even a few "wow" moments in there. The writing, however, is pretty damn poor. It's derivative, predictable, melodramatic, and over-the-top to the point of feeling like a parody of the genre.
Rated 06 Feb 2012
4
45th
Yet another film, hailing from South Korea, possessing otherworldly technical skill on behalf of the crew, and having loads of violence. Others have touched on the melodrama, but The Man from Nowhere more than makes up for that in the "fucking crazy knife action" department.
Rated 12 Feb 2012
72
32nd
The Korean equivalent of those by-the-numbers '80s action movies they used to play all the time on TNT.
Rated 17 Feb 2012
87
95th
One of my favorite Korean action films. Like Taken, but at a whole new level.
Rated 05 Mar 2012
74
60th
Too much Asian melodrama but still an exciting and tense movie.
Rated 18 Mar 2012
80
94th
I thought I've seen some good films recently, but this was far and beyond better than any I've seen in months. Action, story, action; it has it all.
Rated 14 Apr 2012
71
38th
it was a pretty good thriller, unfortunatly there wasnt very much memorable except for one good fight scene.
Rated 07 May 2012
85
96th
BRILLIANT!
Rated 08 May 2012
84
84th
great slow burn thriller.gets darker and deadlier with such great timing. and when it all finally comes down in the end..wow.
Rated 25 Nov 2012
74
71st
Decent revenge flick because of the style, but the plot is pretty generic
Rated 20 Apr 2013
80
78th
Really good Korean action film in the mould of the Bourne series and Taken film. Well acted and the fight scenes are excellently filmed.
Rated 09 Jul 2013
54
28th
Mistakes of the story makes this film pretty unbelievable. For instance one can easily get rid of a small package of heroin or whatsoever.
Rated 17 Nov 2013
75
61st
kimi yerde ağlak melodramlara göz kırpsa da, konusu son derece klişe olsa da, güney kore filmlerine olan zaafımdan dolayı puan konusunda torpil geçtim biraz. ağlak mağlak valla, yine de amerikan sineması bokunu yesin bunların. ^^
Rated 25 Apr 2014
90
84th
Awesome! An awesome action movie with a story that really grabs a hold of your heartstrings. The main actor in the film was great; cool, awesome fight scenes, and he went from cool guy with emotional problems to hottie with a suit on, like that. I really liked this movie a lot. It makes me want to delve into more Korean action movies.
Rated 26 May 2014
82
68th
- 12/11/11
Rated 05 Oct 2014
50
12th
gizli ajan, kendi basina yasayan adam, küçük kiz, uyusturucu, organ mafyasi, dövüs, KEYİF VERMEDİ
Rated 16 Feb 2015
85
57th
This film is BONKERS. It's basically Taken but with less racism against Albanians. There's a (spoilers) scene where the main character jumps out of a window and the cameraman literally just jumps out after him. There's a knife fight which is shot POV style.
Rated 07 Aug 2016
93
90th
Nobody does action better than Koreans. Nobody. The knife fight scene, holy cow.
Rated 26 Oct 2016
41
39th
It's SHARP and COOL. And also like a lot of other films about a lonely, mysterious, highly skilled merchant of death.
Rated 02 Dec 2017
52
37th
the usual bollocks with a man who is capable of killing 20 adversaries single handed. Still it has enough about it to keep you watching
Rated 16 Apr 2018
20
3rd
The man from Boredom and Long Kingdom.
Rated 06 Aug 2020
40
12th
final sekansındaki bıçak dövüşü > klişelerine sarılıp mutluca uyuyan filmin kendisi. janrla, hikayeyle ya da karakterlerle farklı bir şey yapıldığında veya iyi koreografili aksiyona dayanıldığında bu kadar klişe rahatsız etmiyor, hatta diğer plot elementlerini işlemeyi kolaylaştırıyor ama burada bunların hiçbiri yok. iyi kamera kullanımı ve formül film.
Rated 21 Mar 2021
84
73rd
Crime genre piece done exceptionally well; too close at times to THE PROFESSIONAL, but still well crafted and distinctive enough to stand on its own (but stay away from the godawful English dub!) Well performed by Bin and Kim and creates a great feel for its locale and characters – fight scenes interesting and well choreographed (I don't think I've ever seen anyone use a potted palm as a continuing weapon during a fight scene before!)
Rated 20 Jan 2023
67
73rd
kor_eng; [the man from nowhere; ajeossi]; gangster kidnappen eine dorgen schmuggelnde frau mit ihrer tochter - doch das ruft deren mysteriösen nachbar auf den plan.
Rated 30 Apr 2023
90
72nd
Excellent action and a surprisingly touching story.
Rated 06 Sep 2023
90
90th
Harter Streifen, aber süß, die Kleine.

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