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 he South Korean movie "Blue" is basically
"Top Gun" with scuba gear instead of Tomcats. Depending on how you
feel about deep sea diving, this may or may not be a good thing. Like a lot of
people, I've never been a big fan of the water or all the other
things people do around water, which may explain why there have been few, if
any, movies about the Coast Guard.
"Blue" stars Hyeon-jun Shin ("Gingko
Bed") as Kim Jun, the best deep sea diver in the South Korean Navy's
rescue unit. Along with childhood friend Tae-hyeon (Yeong-ho Kim), Jun had
joined the Navy, where they both fell for the same girl, although it's the
free-spirited Jun who gets her. Eun-kyung Shin ("My
Wife is a Gangster") plays Su-jin, the third part in this familiar love
triangle. When Jun accidentally discovers that his buddy Tae-hyeon also has
feelings for Su-jin, Jun resolves to save the friendship by cutting all ties
with Su-jin, even though he obviously really loves her. (I think it's an Asian
thing.)
Fast-forward to 3 years later, and Jun and Tae-hyeon are
still good friends and Lieutenants in the Navy. But the status quo is shattered
with the return of Su-jin, who has come back to command their unit. Besides
exploring their secret feelings and hidden resentments toward each other, the
trio also has to deal with Su-yeong Ryu ("Summertime"),
playing a loose cannon on the unit, and Il-jae Lee as the type of ambitious
military officer that gives all military officers in predictable military movies
bad names.
The most interesting thing about "Blue" isn't its
trivial love story or its deep sea hijinks (both of which really doesn't deserve
an hour and 40 minutes of running length), but rather the career of actress
Eun-kyung Shin. After her breakout turn as the battling gangster in "My
Wife is a Gangster", it's disheartening to see her in two mediocre
movies in a row. Her turn as a cop in the confusing mess that was "This
is Law" and now, as a timid officer in "Blue", are big
disappointments for this particular fan. She's a better actress than this, and
after the success of "Gangster", I had expected her to be in line for
much better movie roles.
The detouring career of a fine actress aside,
"Blue" is a big budget endeavor, and it shows. The movie is slick, and
Jeong-Kuk Lee's direction is deserving of the money put into this film.
Unfortunately the screenplay by Hae-gon Kim is formulaic and predictable, which
will sink (no pun intended) an expensive movie any day. Even the movie's final
action sequence, involving the rescue of a sunken submarine, is really nothing
to write home about. (Again, this could just be because of my lackluster
reaction to movies about deep sea diving, but I doubt it.)
Surprisingly, the best moments of "Blue" involves
the rescue unit out of uniform and their interaction with each other. There is a
funny scene where the divers get drunk and dance around like maniacs at a
karaoke bar. I also enjoyed the seething animosity between Tae-hyeon and
Su-yeong Ryu's Sergeant Lee, which culminates in one of those "let's take
off our rank and duke it out" scenes. The romance between the three
primaries, on the other hand, reeks of simplicity and as a result, you wonder if
these characters are in fact adults and not characters in a Teen Movie gone
horribly awry.
But "Blue" is mostly entertaining fluff, which
means I was rarely bored by its segments, rather under the ocean or on land.
Mostly Hyeon-jun Shin's clowning around saved the day, while Yeong-ho Kim's
Tae-hyeon character is completely devoid of a sense of humor or personality.
Perhaps that's the way the character was written, but God is he boring. And he
wonders why Su-jin has eyes only for Jun? Why would anyone want to attach
herself to a sinking rock like Tae-hyeon? Even if the Tae-hyeon character is
supposed to be a super serious military officer, there's really no excuse for
not giving him any hint of a personality.
Go into "Blue" for the big budget and slick
production, but don't expect much else. Unlike "Top Gun", which
featured innovative action sequences that are still being used as
stock footages to this day, there's none of that in 2003's "Blue". For
some, the final sequence with the sunken submarine might prove to be exciting,
but it just didn't do it for me. Not much of "Blue" did it for me,
actually, but for some reason I didn't seem to mind. Not too much, anyway.
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