By Siddhant Adlakha ,
8 minutes ago Hur Jin-ho’s star-studded “The Assassin(s)” turns the holes in a public investigation into an imaginative mystery along the lines of Oliver Stone’s “JFK.” Like Stone’s provocative thriller, Hur crafts a clockwork political saga sure to spark curiosities about the attempted assassination of strongman South Korean prime minister Park Chung-hee in 1974, which resulted in the death of his wife, first lady Yuk Young-soo, as well as a young bystander.
'Magazine' Review: Lily McInerny Scores Her Dream Internship in Alexandra Pechman's Warmly Nostalgic Study of a Bygone Literary Scene
The film ties these events into larger concerns surrounding freedom of the press and some inventive government conspiracies. Your mileage may vary when it comes to the extent of these fabrications, even though “The Assassin(s)” begins with a disclaimer hinting at its own fictions. Regardless, its drama is solid and propulsive, beginning with a group of journalists being harangued by the KCIA (Korean Central Intelligence Agency) for publishing troublesome investigations en route to the botched assassination (intentionally so, according to the film’s internal logic).
The thre...