Yaksha - Ruthless Operations review: A riveting start to this Korean action thriller comes undone by its absurd, clichéd second half

3/5

Story:

Prosecutor Ji-hoon’s (Park Hae-soo) biggest virtue, his idealistic, ethical to a fault pursuit for justice ultimately leads to his downfall. Finding himself demoted after refusing to compromise his ethics in taking down a corrupt businessman, Ji-hoon gets a job in the National Intelligence Service, in a department where rarely anything interesting happens. When an opportunity to go on a special mission to Shenyang, China, presents itself, Ji-hoon jumps at it. His mission- to monitor and review the activities of ruthless, Unmanageable Black ops leader Kang-in (Sul Kyung-ku), aka Yaksha.

Review:

A prosecutor named Ji-hoon, most used to serving justice in its paper form, finds himself yanked into a dangerous world of spies, double agents, political conspiracies and more in Yaksha: Ruthless Operations. And the way Ji-hoon’s unlucky journey unfolds as he comes face to face with Yaksha, whose nature is true to its name, makes for an intriguing story.

The assignment Ji-hoon considered simple, reviewing the shady dealings of the NIS Black ops team posted in Shenyang and reporting them to his superior, takes some complicated detours. He realises that the reason Yaksha’s reports were falsified is due to the volatile political situation prevalent in the city, where different countries’ superpowers are involved in a vicious power scuffle. Yaksha’s ruthless, tough as nails attitude doesn’t make things easier for Ji-hoon either, who finds himself feeling trapped by the very people he thought he held power over- Yaksha and his highly trained team of spies.

Yaksha: Ruthless Operations certainly gets the momentum going right from its start. It takes no time into shoving you, face first into the high octane action that is characteristic of spy thrillers. And action is something that the film does not lack in the least. Raining bullets, explosions, high speed car chases, you name it, the film has it all. To its credit, the action sequences are expertly executed too, not relying on a myriad of cutaways and long shots to make it just ‘seem’ like people are getting the living souls beaten out of them. The cinematography is breathtaking as well, taking viewers into the brilliance of the Chinese city, with all of its vibrant colours in full display, especially at night time.

And the high octane action beautifully complimented the complicated yet interesting story, where viewers are kept guessing at every turn. Viewers are left worrying for Ji-hoon’s safety, doubtful of Yaksha’s true intentions and every new character that rears their head at different parts of the story also carry with them enough charisma to make viewers start to care for them. But sadly, the very promising start the film had ultimately ends up being too good to be true, as the writing slowly starts to segue into the train wreck that is the film’s second half.

While the first half had a complicated, layered story, the second half blows all that well established ground work to smithereens, as we are left with a second rate ‘revelation’ that leaves a bad taste in your mouth. The complex situations of moral ambiguity that made the story interesting is thrown under the bus for a simplistic black and white tale of a powerful and ruthless villain who, you guessed it, was behind all the catastrophes that had thrown our heroes into turmoil.

Even Yaksha’s compelling characterisation falls flat, bland and cliched when the film hits the halfway mark. The first half had set the stage for our titular character as someone who was hard to lay a finger on and gauge correctly. He took on hues of an antihero, never shying away from putting a bullet into someone when the situation required it. He is also a man of few words who let his actions do the talking. Underneath all that antihero veneer, we are introduced to a classic ‘Robin Hood’ type who is an all round knight in shining armour in every sense. He, quite literally steals to give to the poor, embezzling millions just so he could provide for the families of those killed in action. And blandly unsurprisingly, he does not keep a penny for himself. He saves the life of every single person in his team, who stick with him due to their boring loyalty because of this and nothing else. And to cinch the deal on Yaksha’s cliched characteristization, he also says very asinine lines such as ‘Your number’s up, you die’, while childishly refusing to wear protective gear.

And where the story goes in the second half is something that has been done a dime a dozen in spy movies ever since the genre came into existence. The hero pulling a betrayal only to be revealed as faking it to nab the bad guy; an invaluable asset spent in search of during the entire course of the film falling into the wrong hands but ultimately being saved; the girl who you think will be a villain ending up joining our heroes, the film has it all.

Some very ridiculous plotlines are also sought to be marketed as ‘bright ideas’ during the course of the story as well. You decide to infiltrate a country’s consulate, so naturally the best way to create a distraction would be to release a bunch of rats into the building, flown in by a very conspicuous and suspicious looking drone. It seems a miracle that our heroes have managed to not blow their cover for so long with ideas as such in their kitty.

But some stellar performances by the lead cast ends up being the glue that ultimately holds the film together. Coupled with some riveting action and a strong first half.

Verdict:

Yaksha: Ruthless Operations features expertly made action sequences, stellar performances and an intriguing story that holds well in the first half. But unfortunately the film takes a downward turn when the writing gets sloppy in its second half.