Carter

Watched South Korea's 2023 Carter (2:13:57), not to be confused with the cartoon TV series of the same title.

`Dr. Jung Byeong-ho and his daughter Ha-na disappear en route to North Korea. Dr. Jung successfully developed an antidote to the deadly DMZ virus that originated in North Korea and used it to cure Ha-na. They are now sought after by the North Korean government. The American CIA, the South Korean CIA, and North Korean subversives plotting a coup, however,  also want to get their hands on Ha-Na.

Agent Carter Lee is tasked by the North Korean government to find Ha-na and deliver her safely to North Korea.

This is a wonderfully exciting movie well-performed by a South Korean cast and replete with breathtaking but fluid camera movements by drones, by AI-assisted and simulated drone shots, and by non-obtrusive animation. It is ten times more impossible than all of the episodes of Mission Impossible and puts to shame all of the Bourne series movies taken together. It is replete with twists and turns from beginning to end. While it is extremely violent, one is continuously made conscious of suspension of disbelief and has no other recourse than to enjoy all of the sequences as though they were in a long and protracted video game.

The North Korea-South Korea situation always lends itself well to the production of movies on Asian espionage. And, while the movie seems to be one, endless chase, there is a method to the madness, like a painting that uses the Greek Golden Rectangle as a template. Many of the scenes are actually symmetrical--the bathhouse massacre in the beginning and the laboratory massacre toward the ending, for example, are in complete balance of each other.

A must-watch for everyone seeking total escapism.