...Youth Pre-empted. Interrupted. Innocence, abruptly thrust into maturity. Whether by design, by accident, by choice or by way of necessity...for better or for worse, a hiccup in life, that's quite literally life-changing. For some of us, such a revelation is quite relatable (...for this viewer, here's a hand raised, having had 'youth interrupted', at least in part, by way of an early and lengthy stint in the military). A misfit-flavored sort of loneliness...sometimes, a blurring confusion of identity. In that respect, possibly given way to conditioning and adapting, one is forcibly expected to perform in a mature manner, dealing with serious issues and situations...all while forced to suppress that sense of youth, wanting ever so much to break free (...once again, hand raised over here, in that the military tethered and restricted my youthfully driven creative side). In films, this personal aspect has been examined many times, and in most cases and varied scenarios, has been found quite compelling and intriguing...the sudden thrust into an adult world...how one performs in such a situation...the lonely, misfit feeling of surrendering one's self in a mature role...trying to fit in a coat that's several sizes too big, and forced to shelve one's youth...and the resulting knowledge incorporated, should that sense of lost youth, be recovered. Such is the dilemma of Myung-Hon Ri, a labor-camp youth, turned assassin, and assigned a most unusual, yet ideal undercover...as a high school student, in inaugural director Park Hong-Soo's compelling examination of unconventional espionage, family loyalty, and the struggle to maintain identity...2013's "Commitment"...
