The Man from Nowhere (Korean: 아저씨; RR: Ajeossi; lit. Mister) is a 2010 South Korean neo-noiraction-thriller film starring Won Bin and written and directed by Lee Jeong-beom. It was South Korea's highest-grossing film in 2010 and had 6.2 million admissions.[2] In the film, a mysterious man embarks on a bloody rampage when the only person who seems to understand him is kidnapped.
Cha Tae-sik is a quiet man running a pawnshop, who has a friend named So-mi, a little girl from the same neighborhood. So-mi's mother Hyo-jeong is a go-go dancer and opium addict. Instructed by her lover, Hyo-jeong steals a large pack of opium being sold at the bar where she works and hides it in a camera bag, which she pawns to Tae-sik for safe keeping. Hyo-jeong's action attracts the attention of a drug lord named Oh Myung-gyu, who tasks his subordinate brothers Man-seok and Jong-seok to retrieve the opium. Jong-seok locates Hyo-jeong, where he tortures her in front of So-mi and forces her to reveal about the location of the drugs.
Jong-seok's lackeys Du-chi and Bear go to Tae-sik's place to intimidate him, but Tae-sik easily overpowers them. Holding So-mi hostage, Jong-seok forces Tae-sik to deliver opium to Myung-gyu. Man-seok informs the police, leading to them trying to arrest Myung-gyu, who escapes. Tae-sik is arrested after discovering Hyo-jeong's body with her organs harvested in the back of the car, which he used to make the delivery. Tae-sik escapes from the police station, alarming them with his display of combat skills. Upon further investigation, the officers discover that Tae-sik was a former covert operative for the South Korean Army Intelligence, but Tae-sik retired after an assassin killed his pregnant wife.
The brothers track down Hyo-jeong's lover and kills him, while the brothers' bodyguard Ramrowan finds and kills Myung-gyu, thus allowing the brothers to take over his operations. Following the lead from the burner phone received from Jong-seok, Tae-sik tracks Du-chi to a nightclub. As Tae-sik asks about the brothers, Ramrowan walks in and shoots at them, killing Du-chi and wounding Tae-sik. Tae-sik escapes and finds his former partner, who nurses him back to health and helps him acquire a gun. Tae-sik goes back to the city and discovers a drug manufacturing plant, where he destroys the plant and frees the enslaved children forced to work there, killing Jong-seok in the process.
Tae-sik confronts Man-seok's gang at his condominium. Claiming that he has So-mi's eyes harvested, Man-seok shows Tae-sik a container with two preserved eyeballs. Enraged, Tae-sik kills the gang members brutally, including Ramrowan and Man-seok. As Tae-sik prepares to commit suicide out of grief, a dirty, but unscathed So-mi finds him. Ramrowan, who took pity on her because she had been kind to him, had spared her life -- the eyes in the container belonged to the gangsters' surgeon. The police allow Tae-sik and So-mi to ride together after Tae-sik's arrest. While So-mi falls asleep, Tae-sik asks them to drop at a small convenience store where he buys a backpack along with other school supplies. Tae-sik tells So-mi that she is going to be on her own as the police have to take him away. Before leaving, Tae-sik asks her for a hug and breaks down in tears as they embrace.
During its August 6–8 opening weekend, the film recorded 712,840 admissions, taking the number 1 spot on the box office charts for five weeks straight. It had sold a total of 6,228,300 tickets when it finished its theatrical run on November 17, 2010.[2] The film grossed a total of US$42,484,155 in South Korea.[6] On October 1, 2010 CJ Entertainment gave the film a limited theatrical release to North American theaters where it grossed US$35,751 in 1 theater its opening weekend. After widening the release up to 19 theaters, the film grossed US$528,175 in the U.S. and Canada.[1]
Reception
As of August 2013, six of six critics gave positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes.[7] Russell Edwards of Variety wrote "Brutal violence dominates the dynamic Korean thriller The Man From Nowhere. Local heartthrob Won Bin (Mother, Tae Guk Gui) transforms himself into an action hero in writer-helmer Lee Jeong-beom’s swift and blood-soaked yarn, about a mystery man who gets caught up in a gang war while trying to protect a child, recalling Luc Besson's The Professional."[8]
In March 2012, Dimension Films acquired the rights to do an English-language remake of The Man From Nowhere; plans are to have Shawn Christensen, who wrote and directed the 2012 short film Curfew, write the adaptation.[17][18] On August 5, 2020, it was reported that the remake will be produced by John Wick director Chad Stahelski and Jason Spitz with a script provided by Derek Kolstad for New Line Cinema.[19]
