At The Movies: In Harbin, history is handled with care

Harbin (NC16)

113 minutes, opens on Dec 25 ★★★☆☆

The story: It is 1909 and the Korean Empire is under Japanese control. In this thriller based on a real assassination plot, Lieutenant General Ahn Jung-geun (Hyun Bin) and his band of Korean independence fighters plan to intercept Japanese statesman Ito Hirobumi (Japanese actor Lily Franky) in Harbin. After a battle where Ahn shows mercy to the enemy, his compatriots mistake his kindness for treason, making him a target of suspicion. Still, Ahn and his fighters vow to kill the Japanese official, despite opposition from fellow fighter Lee Chang-sup (Lee Dong-wook) and pursuit by the vengeful Japanese Major Mori Tatsuo (Park Hoon). A traitor in their midst helps the major lure the fighters into a trap. 

For a film about one of history’s most audacious attempts to fell an oppressor, Harbin plays it remarkably safe. 

Ahn is a respected historical figure in both North and South Korea, so worries about honouring his memory might explain the timidity with which this retelling has been approached. Director Woo Min-ho adds precious little psychological depth to any member of the ensemble of heroes, while the Japanese are reduced to villainous stereotypes. 

What remains is nevertheless mounted with visual flair, especially in the use of landscapes. 

Just before 1910, the borderlands where the Korean peninsula – then under Japanese control – the Russian Empire and the empire of Qing Dynasty China converged was a region of shifting allegiances, shaped by Japan’s victories over China and Russia in two wars. 

This espionage thriller, along with others like Zhang Yimou’s Cliff Walkers (2021), treat the tri-state zone as a hotbed of intrigue. It is a place where resistance groups, Japanese occupiers and their local collaborators engage in deadly games of cat and mouse. 

Chinese film-maker Zhang’s story might have been set a few decades after Woo’s, but both recognise they have an aesthetic goldmine on their hands. Both revel in classic tailoring for the actors and locations that evoke a golden age of steam locomotives and wood-panelled interiors. 

Woo throws in views of Russian architecture too, in Vladivostok, as well as wintry vistas of frozen rivers and snow-cloaked forests, lending an epic feel to the adventure.

The twisty plot is made twistier by his use of flashbacks to explain surprises in the main timeline. A moment’s inattention could leave viewers lost. 

As if anticipating this, Woo drops helpful title cards showing the location and date, while flashbacks are rendered in black and white. Characters speak their intentions out loud. 

Veteran comic actor Franky – best known for playing likeable everyman roles in Japanese auteur Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Like Father, Like Son (2013) and Shoplifters (2018) – demonstrates his range by playing Hirobumi, the targeted statesman.

He delivers Darth Vader-esque bits of potted history, such as: “We have tried invading Korea for 300 years. Their scholars and officials are no problem. But the Korean common people – they have always been the most hostile.”

Hot take: Beautiful landscapes, wooden characters and a villain who might as well twirl his moustache – Harbin is an accessible though bloodless account of revolutionary history.