Director Park Hoon-jung’s latest film The Childe is a riveting adrenaline-charged thriller about a young Korean-Filipino man, Marco (Kang Tae ju), who gets embroiled in a cat-and-mouse chase following his desperate attempts to find his estranged rich father to secure funds for his sick mother's treatment. However, at the heart of the film lies the deadpanning and maniacal assassin named the Nobleman or Childe (Kim Seon-ho), who is after Marco’s life. Highly unpredictable and filled with dark comedy, the film has twisting narratives packed with action and gore and does not reveal anything until the last moment.
Two protagonists, secrets and obscure motives
The film has two protagonists — Marco (Kang Tae ju) and the Nobleman (Kim Seon-ho), whose destinies are intertwined and neither can survive without the other.
Marco is a young man who lives in the Philippines with his sick mother, trying to earn money through boxing, betting and gambling for her life-saving surgery. He also keeps searching for his rich Korean father who had abandoned his Filipino mother. To Marco’s surprise, his long-absent father is also searching for him. Because of his failing health, Marco’s father sends his men to the Philippines to bring him to Korea.
On a business-class flight to Korea, Marco meets a handsome man known as the Nobleman, who comes across as dangerous but warns Marco about a threat to his life. However, this nameless man is not the only person after Marco’s life. Marco’s father’s family, his brother and his half-sister who live in Korea, track him down and try to kill him too.
Marco’s journey becomes filled with high-octane action, palpable tension and chaos as he unravels a startling truth about the odd life-and-death situation from which he cannot escape on his own.
K-drama heartthrob Kim Seon-ho steals the show
As the Nobleman, Kim Seon-ho is the driving force of the film. His character fluctuates between being a maniac and a well-wisher who chases Marco all through without revealing his motives until the last minute. Kim Seon-ho’s good looks and grey suit coupled with his impassive face and deranged smile make the Nobleman, who calls himself a “professional” in the field of assassins and psychotic killers, an intimidating personality. Who would have thought the man of our dreams from the K-drama Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha could make such a great villain?
Who is the real villain?
Everyone is harbouring a secret in Park Hoon-jung’s The Childe, be it the mystery around Marco’s supposed family or the Nobleman’s motives. The revelations come at junctures when things get too murky and the twists only make you keep clutching on to the edge of your seat.
The action-sequences in the film are fast-paced and anxiety-inducing. For the most part, Park Hoon-jung keeps us glued to the screen by having the characters chase each other. The Nobleman chases Marco while other characters, like Marco’s brother and his men, chase both of them until the climactic scene.
Just when you think that the Childe or the Nobleman is the villain, the film shows him in a completely different light.
The title of the film is a play on the words ‘childe’ and ‘child’. It is based on the main aspect of the story — the dual protagonist structure of the childe (the Nobleman) and the Korean-Filipino child (Marco). Park Hoon-jung — known for his films like Night in Paradise, The Witch Part 1 and 2 and his screenplay for I Saw The Devil — has once again delivered a puzzling thriller wrapped in action, mystery, drama and humour.
