Night In Paradise (2020; aka Nagwonui bam) is good but not great, but it is an interesting South Korean movie that might have slipped past notice as a Netflix Original. Directed by Park Hoon-jung (screenwriter of I Saw The Devil), the film is like a meeting point between a violent gangster film and a slow arthouse picture. Uhm Tae-goo plays a mob lieutenant who is lying low on Jeju Island, awaiting passage to Russia after assassinating a rival boss as an act of revenge for his sister and his niece who were killed as part of a gang war. The safehouse he is staying at is owned by an arms dealer (Lee Ki-young) whose daughter (Jeon Yeo-been) is suffering from a terminal illness. Uhm and Jeon’s characters become acquainted, but the possible The Faults In Our Stars type romance is jettisoned for a deepening relationship based on further tragedy and death. Meanwhile on the mainland, rival boss (played with palpable, comical surliness by Cha Seung-won) hunts after Uhm, setting the stage for an inevitable reckoning. This is a decent Korean neo-noir with a seaside ambient quality, alternating its brutal violence with images of palm trees swaying in the night breeze and contemplative chain smoking. Satisfying climax despite the CGI blood. Available to stream on Netflix. Recommended for those who like violent melodramas slow and sad.
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