One of the biggest high budget movie's made in Korea. Basically it's Korean style Bourne movie. The cast are brilliant including Jung-Jae Lee (City of the Rising Sun) and Dong-Kun Jang(2009: Lost Memories). Great location's however most of the budget must have been used for this, there are very few action scene's, don't be expecting amazing shoot out's or high flying unrealistic kung fu fight's. Do expect a film with characterisation and a bit of depth. Overall it's a film which will be enjoyable to watch if you are patient enough to last the first half hour. Ifg anyone has seen 'A Bittersweet life' by Ji-woon Kim you will enjoy this movie but it wont stand out as a classic but a stylish action movie.

Dong-Kun Jang (Nowhere to Hide) is an angry man. If you have seen the documentary Seoul Train, you would know why. He tries to escape North Korea through China to get to South Korea, but is deceived by everyone. He sees his parents slaughtered, and is separated from his sister. The only thing on his mind is revenge against both North and South.

He manages to get some nuclear material and has a brilliant plan.

Director Kyung-Taek Kwak keeps the movie moving as Jung-Jae Lee is called upon to track down the angry man and retrieve the material. He finds his long-lost sister and uses he as bait.

There is more than an action film here. It takes that to place in the US, but there is Korean romance buried withing the film. Too bad there was not enough time for more.

I must admit that it with with a certain level of anticipation and expectations that I sat down to watch "Typhoon", because it had gotten fairly good reviews and it said "a first rate thriller" on the DVD cover. And being a big fan of Asian cinema, I am always thrilled to see a movie that I haven't seen already.

"Typhoon" is a fairly standard formula thriller, as where the 'good guys' have to catch the 'bad guys' before they manage to unleash some kind of malevolent threat upon humanity. And in this case it was a North Korean who wanted to wreck vengeance upon all of South Korea because he believe they took away his chance for a good life in South Korea and took away first his father, then his mother and finally his sister. And it is up to a special government undercover agent from South Korea to stop him before he can execute his plan.

The acting in the movie was actually quite good, especially the performances put on by Dong-gun Jang (playing Sin) and Mi-yeon Lee (playing Choi Myeong-ju). And the scene where they become reunited after twenty years, well, that was just spectacular. It was really nicely acted and came off as believable and emotional.

There was a great deal of good action in the movie and also some exciting enough thrills throughout the movie. However, it just never really managed to raise itself out of a stereotypical formula, and it was something that had been seen before. And on that account, the movie was somewhat of a disappointment. However, if you just watch the movie for the sheer entertainment, then "Typhoon" will actually entertain you quite nicely for the approximate 104 minutes it is running. Just don't expect to see anything new or groundbreaking.

For a Korean action movie, then "Typhoon" was a little bit tame and stale, and there are far more impressive and action-packed Korean action movies available out there. I will say, though, that "Typhoon" is good the first time you watch it, however, I doubt that the movie actually have enough contents to support a second watching.