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Escape From Mogadishu Review: Korean Thriller, Based On A Real-Life Political Crisis, Has The Year’s Most Intense Chase Sequence

South and Korean diplomats put their differences aside to take on the Somalian militia.

South and Korean diplomats put their differences aside to take on the Somalian militia.

South and Korean diplomats put their differences aside to take on the Somalian militia.

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Escape From Mogadishu (PG13)

Starring Kim Yoon-Seok, Zo In-Sung, Huh Joon-Ho, Koo Kyo-Hwan, Kim So-Jin, Joung Man

Sik, Kim Jae-Hwa, Park Gyeong-Hye

Directed by Ryoo Seung-Wan

South Korea's Black Hawk Down. With help from North Korea. Instead of soldiers fleeing trigger-happy Somali gunmen, it’s a ragtag bunch of sworn Asian enemies forced accidentally into teaming up to find a flight out of their chaotic African hellhole.

Based apparently on a true incident in Somalia’s civil war in1991, a bunch of North Koreans seeks unlikely refuge in the besieged and ravaged South Korean embassy looking like a makeshift Alamo in lawless Mogadishu.

Both sides are there to woo Somalia’s vote for UN recognition. Which means we eagerly lap up the North-South divide of clever irony and dramatic quirkiness that K-movies do so well.

The ambassadors — The Chaser’s Kim Yoon-Seok plays the South’s diplomat — are humanised as contrasting but gradually warming kindred spirits despite their countries’ extremely cold war.

There’s a telling communal dinner scene together, but the film doesn’t spend enough time milking this inter-Korean alien-vs-alien dynamic. Best odd take — rival hardcore intelligence officers clash when the SK agent makes secret “conversion certificates” for the Northerners’ supposed defection.

It’s the interlude before the big-money highlight when the foes put mutual distrust aside for a dangerous dash to freedom across hordes of armed Somalis, portrayed here as corrupt, cruel and frenziedly violent.

As the Korean convoy of cars covered with duct-taped books and protective stuff speeds past a mazy gauntlet in the rubble-strewn streets — filmed in Morocco — chased by thousand-bullet shooters, it’s an all-action Great Escape sequence that would make Black Hawk Down proud. (3.5/5 stars)

Photo: Golden Village Pictures

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