A Man of Reason

The directorial debut of Jung Woo-sung , A Man of Reason follows a taciturn criminal (Jung’s Su-hyuk) as he attempts to go straight after serving ten years in prison – with complications ensuing after the nefarious figures from Su-hyuk’s past decide to settle an old score. It’s decidedly familiar territory that’s employed to sporadically watchable yet often excessively erratic effect by Jung, as the first-time filmmaker, who admittedly kicks the proceedings off with an impressively electric start, delivers a woefully sluggish endeavor that’s been peppered with a whole host of less-than-enthralling elements – including (and especially) an ongoing emphasis on the exploits of two almost unreasonably oddball assassins. It’s clear, then, that A Man of Reason benefits from Jung’s sturdy performance and the presence of a few thoroughly engrossing action sequences, with the picture’s high-water-mark a mid-movie set-piece wherein a car wreaks violent havoc within a building’s ornate lobby. And although the film does possess a handful of other similarly electrifying moments, A Man of Reason’s far-from-propulsive atmosphere, coupled with its reliance on hackneyed attributes (eg the John Wick-like criminal organization pursuing Su-hyuk), does prevent it from possessing the compulsively watchable feel for which Jung is obviously striving.

**1/2 out of ****