The 1920s, when Korea has fallen under Japanese rule.
Lee Jung-chool (Song Kang-ho), a Korean police captain in the Japanese police force, is given a special mission to infiltrate the armed resistance fighting for Korean independence. He approaches Kim Woo-jin (Gong Yoo), a leader of the resistance. These two men who stand on opposite sides of their historical era, each knowing the identity and intentions of the other, become close without revealing their inner thoughts. Meanwhile intel is being leaked on both sides, and no one knows who the informants are. Members of the resistance meet in Shanghai to obtain explosives that will be used to destroy facilities of the Japanese Headquarters in Seoul, while the Japanese police follow them and gather in Shanghai. The pursued and the pursuers, locked in an operation where each side uses the other and is thrown into a confusion of secret enmity and conciliation. Meanwhile, a train carrying explosives passes the border and heads towards Seoul…
Press
100% Fresh Rating on Rotten Tomatoes
"Superb at every level, with stunning widescreen cinematography, lavish set design, compelling characters, thrilling fight choreography and eerie soundtrack music... 'The Age of Shadows' is worth every moment." - Star Tribune
"A blisteringly entertaining and exquisite genre exercise." - The Playlist
"Superb cloak-and-dagger entertainment" - Los Angeles Times
Director's Statement
It all started with my attraction to spy movies. I feel an allure towards double agents or double spies, who with their divided identities act in secret while surrounded by enemies, standing at the borders of their turbulent age. There are so many film masterpieces set in Western countries during the Cold War. But the thought occurred to me that Korea, whose contemporary history is no less dramatic than that of the Cold War, could serve as an effective setting for a spy movie. The Age of Shadows is a dramatization of Hwang Ok’s 1923 bombing of police headquarters during the Japanese colonial era, a key event in the history of Korea’s independence movement. Using the genre elements of the spy movie, I wanted to depict the secret enmity and conciliation that lay beneath an operation to transport explosives from Shanghai to Seoul, and the efforts of a Korean in the Japanese police force to stop them. In one sense, I wanted to capture the image of people navigating the tightrope between support for or resistance to Japanese colonial rule, and being swept up in the consequences of setting one’s foot down on either side of the line. I tried to capture both the atmosphere of that era, and the manner in which it pressed down on those who lived through it, wherever they might go. On the day before we started shooting, I visited the former office of the Korean Provisional Government in Shanghai. It was so small that the bathroom was located right next to the dinner table. I wanted to suffuse the film with the emotion I felt, learning about the struggles of independence fighters who endeavored to reclaim the spirit of people who had lost their country. I hope that viewers can enjoy this story about the people who lived through that era.
Director Biography
One of Korea’s greatest film stylists, whose innovative take on film genres has brought him worldwide acclaim, Kim Jee-woon is always pushing in new directions. His debut The Quiet Family ingeniously fused horror and comedy in a film that skirts the boundaries of commercial cinema. The Foul King, about a harassed banker who takes up pro wrestling in his spare time, was the film that made a star out of Song Kang-ho. With its stunning visuals and challenging story, A Tale of Two Sisters is recognized as one of the most influential Korean horror films ever. This was followed up by the elegant, brutal noir A Bittersweet Life, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. The eclectic “Kimchi Western” The Good, the Bad, the Weird stands out as both a popular hit and an utterly unique contribution to Korean cinema, while gory revenge drama I Saw the Devil carried Kim into uncharted genre waters. With his contribution to the omnibus film Doomsday Book, Kim tackled the SF genre, while The Last Stand took him to Hollywood to work with Arnold Schwarzenegger. With The Age of Shadows, his first film in three years, Kim at last takes his singular vision to the spy genre. Set in the 1920s, during the Japanese occupation of Korea, the film depicts a group of resistance fighters and Japanese police agents locked in a struggle in which one cannot identify one’s foes and allies. The Age of Shadows depicts the tragic fates of those who operated in a gray area during a painful chapter in Korean history.