Cold Eyes (Korean감시자들; RRGamsijadeul; lit. "Stakeout" or "Surveillance") is a 2013 South Korean action thriller film starring Sol Kyung-gu, Jung Woo-sung, and Han Hyo-joo. A remake of the 2007 Hong Kong film Eye in the Sky, Cold Eyes is about detectives from the surveillance team of a special crime unit who work together to track down a highly efficient and dangerous robber and the crew he leads.[2][3][4][5][6]

Cold Eyes
Korean name
Hangul
Hanja
Revised RomanizationGamsijadeul
McCune–ReischauerKamsijadeul
Directed byCho Ui-seok
Kim Byeong-seo
Written byCho Ui-seok
Based onEye in the Sky
by Yau Nai-Hoi and Au Kin-Yee
Produced byLee Yu-jin
StarringSol Kyung-gu
Jung Woo-sung
Han Hyo-joo
Lee Jun-ho
CinematographyKim Byeong-seo
Yeo Kyung-bo
Edited byShin Min-kyung
Music byDalpalan
Jang Young-gyu
Production
company
Zip Cinema
Distributed byNext Entertainment World
Release date
  • July 3, 2013 (2013-07-03)
Running time
118 minutes
CountrySouth Korea
LanguageKorean
BudgetUS$4.5 million
Box officeUS$37.8 million[1]

It made its North American premiere at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival,[7][8][9] and also screened at the 2013 Busan International Film Festival in the Open Cinema section.[10][11]

Plot

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After a job interview, Ha Yoon-joo, a woman with photographic memory gets hired by a police division where she meets members who to her surprise are largely unarmed and don't wear uniforms, as they specialize in surveillance rather than policing. She joins a team led by a man named Hwang, the division avoids arresting criminals and focuses exclusively on following them around to gather information. The surveillance team immediately runs into trouble when they can't identify a particular ring of robbers due to their masks and their efficiency in robbing the bank. In response, Hwang, Ha, and six other officers spend several weeks wandering around the city streets, tagging after people who match the criminal's physical description. When they finally find him, they put cameras outside his apartment.

Meanwhile, James, the leader of the criminals, wishes to quit his line of work, but his elderly mentor responds by sending a man to kill him, whom he successfully defends against. When James's subordinates confer to discuss the next mission, they are successfully tracked by Hwang's officers who call in a SWAT team to subdue them. Elsewhere, James, murders one of Hwang's officers to escape. Later, after the mentor criticises James and is attacked by his bodyguards, James retaliates by murdering both the mentor and his bodyguards. He then acquires a fake Thai passport and gets ready to leave South Korea.

Hwang and Ha both feel sad at the death of their colleague. As a result, Hwang announces his resignation while Ha takes a leave of absence. However, while Ha is doing her laundry, she suddenly remembers how she had randomly run into James in the past. Namely, on the day of her police interview, James fleetingly walked past her inside a subway car, carrying a grocery store brochure. Ha runs to the grocery store and waits there, managing to catch sight of James again, and urgently notifies Hwang and his officers while staying on James's tail. When James walks into a tunnel, Hwang takes over the pursuit, but James recognizes Hwang (he had seen him in the mirror earlier when he was being followed) and stabs him. Luckily, though, the wound isn't fatal. Ha continues the pursuit into the subway tunnels but this time she is also recognized by James and eventually held hostage. When the SWAT team comes down to the subway tunnel, Ha stabs James in the leg but he escapes and runs deeper into the tunnels.

As the chase goes on, James finds himself trapped between the advancing SWAT team and the mouth of the tunnel, which is being guarded by Hwang, who ran the long way around. As James decides to charge at Hwang, the latter, finding himself at the juncture of an oncoming train, stands his ground to shoot at James, risking a 50/50 chance of the train flattening him. Fortunately, the train takes the other branch and James is shot dead by Hwang.

Encouraged by the success, Hwang withdraws his resignation, and together with Ha, goes on to execute further such missions including the pursuit of an international terrorist.

Cast

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Special appearance

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Box office

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Cold Eyes smashed 2.17 million in the first week of release.[20] After 17 days, it reached 4 million admissions.[21][22] It reached the 5 million mark on July 27,[23][24] with 5,506,409 total admissions at the end of its run.

Awards and nominations

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2013 Buil Film Awards
  • Best Actress - Han Hyo-joo
  • Nominated - Best Supporting Actress - Jin Kyung
  • Nominated - Best New Actor - Lee Jun-ho
  • Nominated - Best Screenplay - Cho Ui-seok
  • Nominated - Best Cinematography - Kim Byeong-seo
2013 Korean Association of Film Critics Awards
2013 Grand Bell Awards
  • Nominated - Best Costume Design - Jo Sang-gyeong
2013 Blue Dragon Film Awards
  • Best Actress - Han Hyo-joo[25]
  • Nominated - Best Supporting Actor - Jung Woo-sung
  • Nominated - Best Cinematography - Kim Byeong-seo, Yeo Kyung-bo
  • Nominated - Best Lighting - Kim Seung-gyu
  • Nominated - Best Music - Dalparan, Jang Young-gyu
  • Nominated - Technical Award - Shin Min-kyung
2013 Asia Pacific Film Festival
  • Nominated - Best Editing - Shin Min-kyung[26]
2014 Asian Film Awards[27]
2014 Baeksang Arts Awards

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Box office by Country: Cold Eyes". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2013-07-10.
  2. ^ Jung, Han-seok (1 August 2013). "JOH Ui-seok and KIM Byeong-seo, Directors of COLD EYES: The Art of Watching and Being Watched". Korean Cinema Today. Retrieved 2013-08-17.
  3. ^ Ji, Yong-jin (8 February 2013). "Police Are Hot in Pursuit of a Kingpin in COLD EYES". Korean Film Council. Retrieved 2013-02-11.
  4. ^ Kang, Jung-yeon (14 May 2013). "Movie Cold Eyes Ready To Thrill Audience in 2013 Summer". TenAsia. Archived from the original on 28 March 2014. Retrieved 2013-05-14.
  5. ^ Sunwoo, Carla (6 June 2013). "Cold Eyes is a story of firsts for the cast". Korea JoongAng Daily. Archived from the original on June 15, 2013. Retrieved 2013-06-06.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  6. ^ Lee, Eun-sun (14 June 2013). "Two Big Things Are Coming: 1,000 Eyes Staring at Him - Cold Eyes". Korean Film Council. Retrieved 2013-06-14.
  7. ^ Conran, Pierce (24 July 2013). "Toronto Looks to COLD EYES: Korean Thriller Gets Gala Invite for TIFF". Korean Film Council. Retrieved 2013-07-31.
  8. ^ "Cold Eyes Invited to Toronto Int'l Film Fest". The Chosun Ilbo. 25 July 2013. Retrieved 2013-07-31.
  9. ^ "Toronto film festival 2013: the full line-up". The Guardian. 23 July 2013. Retrieved 2013-07-24.
  10. ^ Willette, Jeff (10 October 2013). "Busan International Film Festival 2013". SippinSoko.com. Archived from the original on 29 October 2013. Retrieved 2013-10-08.
  11. ^ Arcega, Raymond (27 October 2013). "Busan International Film Festival 2013". GreenTeaGraffiti. Archived from the original on 2013-10-29. Retrieved 2013-10-27.
  12. ^ Sunwoo, Carla (12 October 2012). "Jung Woo-sung preps for bad guy role". Korea JoongAng Daily. Archived from the original on January 26, 2013. Retrieved 2012-11-18.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  13. ^ Kim, Ji-yi (28 May 2013). "Jung Woo Sung playing as a villain for the first time in his career". StarN News. Archived from the original on 2014-03-05. Retrieved 2013-05-28.
  14. ^ Lim, Ju-ri (28 June 2013). "Jung Woo-sung turns bad". Korea JoongAng Daily. Archived from the original on June 29, 2013. Retrieved 2013-06-28.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  15. ^ "Jung Woo-sung Turns His Back on Nice-Guy Image in New Film". The Chosun Ilbo. 29 June 2013. Retrieved 2013-06-29.
  16. ^ Lee, Hye-ji (15 July 2013). "INTERVIEW: Actor Jung Woo-sung: Confessions of a Top Star". TenAsia. Archived from the original on 2014-03-28. Retrieved 2013-07-21.
  17. ^ Ho, Stewart (25 October 2012). "2PM Junho to Make Movie Debut Opposite Jung Woo Sung, Han Hyo Joo in Surveillance". enewsWorld. CJ E&M. Archived from the original on 29 January 2013. Retrieved 2012-11-18.
  18. ^ Lee, Hye-ji (19 June 2013). "2PM Junho Impresses with Big Screen Debut Thriller". TenAsia. Archived from the original on 28 March 2014. Retrieved 2013-06-19.
  19. ^ An, So-hyoun (20 June 2013). "2PM's Junho Says He's Really Nervous about His Role in Cold Eyes". enewsWorld. CJ E&M. Archived from the original on 24 June 2013. Retrieved 2013-06-20.
  20. ^ "Cold Eyes Smashes 2-Million Mark in First Week". The Chosun Ilbo. 10 July 2013. Retrieved 2013-07-13.
  21. ^ Lee, Claire (19 July 2013). "Cold Eyes smashes 4 million mark". The Korea Herald. Retrieved 2013-07-20.
  22. ^ "Cold Eyes Still Sweeping Box Office". The Chosun Ilbo. 23 July 2013. Retrieved 2013-07-23.
  23. ^ "Cold Eyes Hits 5-Million Mark in Cinema Attendance". The Chosun Ilbo. 29 July 2013. Retrieved 2013-07-31.
  24. ^ Kang, Jung-yeon (30 July 2013). "Han Hyo-joo Celebrates Cold Eyes Records". TenAsia. Archived from the original on 2014-03-28. Retrieved 2013-07-31.
  25. ^ "Netizens split on Han Hyo Joo's Best Leading Actress win at Blue Dragon Film Awards". Korea Star Daily via Yahoo!. 25 November 2013. Retrieved 2014-01-18.
  26. ^ Conran, Pierce (3 December 2013). "7 Nominations for SNOWPIERCER at Asia Pacific Film Festival". Korean Film Council. Retrieved 2014-01-18.
  27. ^ Tae, Sang-joon (14 February 2014). "5 Films including SNOWPIERCER nominated for the AFAs". Korean Film Council. Retrieved 2014-02-20.
  28. ^ Chung, Joo-won (27 May 2014). "Song Gang-ho, Jun Ji-hyun get top nods at Baeksang Awards". The Korea Herald. Retrieved 2014-05-28.
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