Synopsis:

Professor Kang (Sol Kyung-Gu) is the coroner on a recent murder victim that has been chopped into pieces and reassembled. The police pretty quickly identify Seong-hyo Lee (Ryoo Seung-Bum) as the murderer, however the police don't know that Lee has kidnapped Kang's daughter and will kill her unless he can get him released in three days.

Story Revu:

Despite my consistent claims that I don't like the Korean Revenge Ultra-Gore genre, I keep getting amazed with the high quality of some of it's stand-out films like The Chaser and I Saw the Devil. Well, not this time. But then, I don't even know if you could classify this as ultra-gore, save one extremely uncomfortable dissection sequence that feels like it goes on forever. I found this film not just incredibly boring, but also... it just didn't make a lot of sense. While Dr. Kang is trying to dispose of Lee's evidence to save his daughter, he's also doing whatever he can to track down Lee's accomplice and where his daughter might be. Here's the thing though... the killer is in police custody. If this dumbass can muster the detective skills to track down his daughter wouldn't it strike him that maybe an entire police force of trained professional could do it better? Every damn scene I thought, "Boy, this sure would be easier if you had a squad full of cops backing you up" or "What a terrible way to screw with evidence, obviously someone is going to figure this out!" The characters in the film act like characters, not like persons, and so it's impossible to get invested in the story. I just sit there, disbelief unsuspended, bored out of my mind. "That's not how people would act" "That decision makes no sense." "How long till this is over?" etc. The only somewhat clever part of the story is the twist at the end, but even that requires Kang to be the worst coroner ever. And there are so many ways it can and should've gone wrong that my thought process was exactly "Oh shit! That's fucking clever-- wait, that would never work."

Action Revu:

I wouldn't call anything that happens in this film "action"

Overall:

No Mercy is a well made and performed film... I really have been trying to justify giving it a higher score than this. But it was just so godawful boring and completely divorced from logic that it killed any tension it should've had. And the twist at the end is only cool if you never question it's plausibility.

1/5 Stars

Upcoming requests include Lone Wolf and Cub Series, Beast Cops, Seven Swords, Battle of Wits, Breaking News, Tae Guk GI, and Assembly

Here's a quick index of all of my reviews

Also, be sure to follow me on facebook for updates on kung-fu reviews, comics, and artworks as the hit the net