Movies

(R2B)Return to Base (2012)

Cast:

Rain - Captain Jung Tae-yoon

Shin Se-kyung - Technical Sergeant Yoo Se-young

Yoo Jun-sang - Major Yi Cheol-hee,

Lee Ha-na - Captain Oh Yoo-jin, Tae-yoon's

Kim Sung-su - Major Park Dae-suh, Tae-yoon's

Lee Jong-suk - First Lieutenant Ji Seok-hyun,

Jung Kyung-ho - Captain Jo Tae-bong

Jung Suk-won - Technical Sergeant Choi Min-ho

Jo Sung-ha - Brigadier General Choi Byeong-gil

Oh Dal-soo - Master Sergeant Min Dong-phil

Synopsis

Captain Jung Tae-yoon (Rain), an elite Black Eagles Air Force pilot, after performing a cocky and dangerous air show demonstration, was transferred to combat flying F-15K unit. There he meets Cheol-hee (Yoo Jun-sang), the unit's own top gun. The two comes into conflict immediately, since Tae-hun is free-spirited, whereas Cheol-hee plays by the rules. However when a reconnaissance mission unexpectedly becomes an incident, the two team up to rescue their missing comrades.

Ninja Assassin (2009)

Cast:

Rain as Raizo

Naomie Harris as Mika Coretti

Ben Miles as Ryan Maslow

Rick Yune as Takeshi

Sho Kosugi as Ozunu

Linh Dan Pham as Female Assassin

Sung Kang as Hollywood

Randall Duk Kim as Tattoo Master

Stephen Marcus as Kingpin

Lee Joon as Teenage Raizo

Eleonore Weisgerber as Mrs. Sabatin

Synopsis

Raizo (Rain) is raised by the Ozunu Clan to become the most lethal ninja assassin in the world. As a child, Raizo (being an orphan) was taken in by Lord Ozunu (Sho Kosugi) and is enrolled in severe brutal training to become the next successor of their clan. The only generosity he ever receives was from a kunoichi named Kiriko (Kylie Goldstein), with whom he develops a romantic bond. As time goes on, Kiriko becomes disenchanted with the Ozunu's routine and wishes to abandon it for freedom. One rainy night, Kiriko decides to make her escape and encourages Raizo to join her; however he decides to stay. Branded as a traitor, Kiriko was caught and later executed in front of Raizo by her elder ninja brother Takeshi (Rick Yune). As a result of Kiriko's death, Raizo begins to harbor resentment and doubt towards the Ozunu; however, this is shown to be in the past.

The scene switches to the present where a disguised female assassin (Linh Dan Pham) attempts to kill Raizo at a laundromat. He successfully fends off all her attacks and succeeds in killing her, leaving her remains in the washing machine.The scene switches back to the past where Raizo is seated in a car and is instructed by Lord Ozunu to successfully complete his first assassination mission. Afterwards, Raizo meets the rest of his clan atop a city skyscraper in Berlin. There he is instructed by Lord Ozunu to execute another kunoichi traitor like Kiriko. He rebels against Lord Ozunu by cutting his face with a kyoketsu-shoge and engages in combat against his fellow ninja kin. Barely surviving, he falls over the edge of the skyscraper and into a nearby pool. Raizo recovers from his ordeal and begins to intervene and foil subsequent Ozunu assassination attempts.

Meanwhile, Europol agent Mika Coretti (Naomie Harris) has been investigating money-linked political murders and finds out that they are possibly connected to the Ozunu. She defies her superior, Ryan Maslow (Ben Miles), and retrieves secret agency files to find out more about the investigation. Mika meets Raizo and convinces him to see Maslow for protection as well as to provide evidence against the Ozunu. However, Raizo is arrested by Maslow and abducted by agents from Europol for interrogation. Although feeling betrayed, Mika is assured by Maslow that he is still on her side and gives her a tracking device for emergencies. The Ozunu ninja infiltrate the Europol safehouse where Raizo is being held in an attempt to kill him and everybody inside. Mika frees Raizo and they both manage to escape, but Raizo suffers near-mortal wounds. Mika then takes him to a motel to hide. Resting in the motel, Mika implants the tracking device into Raizo, as the ninjas remain in pursuit. Unable to fend off the Ozunu, she hides outside the motel until Special Forces arrive to help her.

By the time they arrive, the ninjas have already kidnapped Raizo, bringing him before Lord Ozunu for prosecution. During transport back to the Ozunu, Raizo uses his ninja techniques to heal his own wounds. Europol special forces and tactical teams led by Maslow storm the secluded Ozunu retreat (nestled in the mountains) using the tracking device on Raizo. Raizo kills Takeshi and confronts Lord Ozunu in a sword duel. Mika interferes to help, but is stabbed by Lord Ozunu. Enraged, Raizo uses a 'shadow blending' technique for the first time to distract and kill Lord Ozunu. Mika, seemingly fatally wounded, is in fact saved by a quirk of birth: her heart is actually on theopposite side of her chest. After Europol leaves, Raizo stays behind to tend to the ruins of the Ozunu retreat. He later climbs the same wall Kiriko did while trying to escape in the past, and looks out at the surrounding countryside. He then recognizes his freedom for the first time.

Speed Racer (2008)

Cast:

Emile Hirsch as Speed Racer. Actors Joseph Gordon-Levitt 

Nicholas Elia as young Speed Racer.

Christina Ricci as Trixie, Speed's girlfriend. 

Ariel Winter as young Trixie.

Matthew Fox as Racer X. Keanu Reeves turned down the role.

Rain (Bi/Jeong Ji-hoon) as Taejo Togokahn, a rookie racer.

John Goodman as Pops Racer, Speed's father.

Susan Sarandon as Mom Racer, Speed's mother.

Scott Porter as Rex Racer, Speed's older brother.

Paulie Litt as Spritle Racer, Speed's younger brother.

Kick Gurry as Sparky, Speed's mechanic and best friend. 

Synopsis

Speed Racer (Emile Hirsch) is an 18-year-old whose life and love has always been automobile racing. His parents Pops (John Goodman) and Mom (Susan Sarandon) run the independent Racer Motors, in which his brother Spritle (Paulie Litt), mechanic Sparky (Kick Gurry), and girlfriend Trixie (Christina Ricci) are also involved. As a child Speed idolized his record-setting older brother, Rex Racer (Scott Porter), but Rex was disowned by Pops for his decision to join a corporate racing team and was publicly defamed for appearing to cheat in a race. He was then killed while racing in the Casa Cristo 5000, an intense cross-country racing rally notorious for rough and foul play. Now embarking on his own career, Speed Racer is quickly sweeping the racing world with his skill behind the wheel of his brother's car the Mach 5 and his own Formula One car the Mach 6, but remains primarily interested in the art of the race and the well-being of his family.

E.P. Arnold Royalton (Roger Allam), owner of conglomerate Royalton Industries, offers Speed an astoundingly luxurious lifestyle in exchange for signing to race with him. Speed is tempted but declines due to his father's distrust of power-hungry corporations. Angered, Royalton reveals that for many years the key races have been fixed by corporate interests, including Royalton himself, to gain profits. He threatens Speed's career and family, making good on these threats by having his drivers force Speed into a crash that destroys the Mach 6 and suing Racer Motors for intellectual property infringement. Speed decides that he must do something to stop Royalton and save the Racer business, and an opportunity to do so arises in the form of Inspector Detector (Benno Fürmann), head of a corporate crimes division. Racer Taejo Togokahn (Rain) claims to have evidence that could indict Royalton but will only offer it up if Speed and the mysterious masked Racer X (Matthew Fox) agree to race on his team in the Casa Cristo 5000. Taejo claims that a win could substantially raise the stock price of his family's racing business, blocking a Royalton-arranged buyout. Speed agrees but keeps his decision secret from his family, and Inspector Detector's team makes several defensive modifications to the Mach 5 to assist Speed in the rally.

After they drive together and work naturally as a team, Speed begins to suspect that Racer X is actually his brother Rex in disguise. His family discovers that he has entered the race and agree to support him. With the help of his family and Trixie, Speed defeats many brutal racers who have been bribed by fixer Cruncher Block (John Benfield) to stop him, and overcomes seemingly insurmountable obstacles to win the race. However, Taejo's arrangement is revealed to be a sham, as he was only interested in increasing the value of his family's company so that they could profit from Royalton's buyout. An angry Speed hits the track that he used to drive with his brother, and confronts Racer X with his suspicion that he is Rex. Racer X removes his mask, revealing an unfamiliar face, and tells Speed that Rex truly is dead. Speed returns home, where Taejo's sister Horuko Togokahn (Yu Nan) gives him Taejo's automatic invitation to the Grand Prix. The Racer family bands together and builds the new Mach 6 in 32 hours.

Speed enters the Grand Prix against great odds: Royalton has placed a bounty on his head that the other drivers are eager to collect, and he is pitted against legendary Hall of Fame driver Jack "Cannonball" Taylor (Ralph Herforth). Speed overcomes a slow start to catch up with Taylor, who uses a cheating device called a spearhook to latch the Mach 6 to his own car. Speed uses his jump jacks to expose the device to video cameras and cause Taylor to crash. Speed wins the race, having successfully exposed Royalton's crimes. Racer X, who is watching, reveals through aflashback montage that he is indeed Rex, having faked his death and undergone plastic surgery to change his appearance as part of his plan to save his family and the sport of racing. He chooses not to reveal his identity to his family, declaring that he must live with his decision. The Racer family celebrates Speed's victory as Speed and Trixie kiss, and Royalton is sent to jail.

I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK (2006)

Cast:

Rain as Park Il-soon

Im Soo-jung as Cha Young-goon

Choi Hee-jin as Dr. Choi Seul-gi

Lee Yong-nyeo as Young-goon's mother

Yoo Ho-jeong as Il-soon's mother

Kim Byeong-ok as Judge

Synopsis

The film takes place mostly in a mental institution filled with an eclectic menagerie of patients. Young-goon, a young woman working in a factory constructing radios and who believes herself to be a cyborg, is institutionalised after cutting her wrist and connecting it with a power cord to a wall outlet in an attempt to "recharge" herself, an act that is interpreted as a suicide attempt. Her delusion is characterised by refusing to eat (she instead licks batteries and attempts to administer electric shocks to herself), conversing almost solely with machines and electrical appliances and obsessively listening to her transistor radio at night for instruction on how to become a better cyborg. Her apathetic mother is interviewed by the institute's head doctor, to determine the roots of Young-goon's psychosis; despite claiming ignorances of her daughter's delusion (it is later learnt she knew but was too busy to make her seek help), she reveals that Young-goon's mentally ill grandmother had previously been institutionalised for delusions of being a mouse, a trauma that sparks Young-goon's own lapses from reality. As a result, she frequently fantasizes of finding her grandmother and seeking revenge on the "men in white" who took her away.

Il-soon, a young male patient hospitalized for anti-social behaviour and kleptomania (stemming from schizophrenia) becomes fascinated with Young-goon; he is described as having "no sympathy" for his fellow man, believes he can "steal" other people's souls/attributes, and frequently wears handmade rabbit masks. He fears that he will eventually "shrink into a dot" and is seen compulsively brushing his teeth when nervous or upset. His habit of covertly taking the traits of his fellow inmates makes him the frequent target of scorn: however, is shown willingly accepting and returning certain traits to their owners after he has had his fill of them.

When Young-goon persuades Il-soon to take away her "sympathy" in order for her to be able to kill the men in white, she has a hallucination of going on a rampage, slaughtering the doctors and orderlies of the hospital. When she is given shock treatment owing to her refusal to eat, she believes that she has been recharged. In reality, her physical condition begins to deteriorate rapidly, and the doctors begin force-feeding her to keep her alive. Il-soon, now wracked with sympathy for Young-goon, hatches an elaborate plan to get Young-goon to eat, convincing her that he can install a food-to-electrical-energy conversion unit (a "rice-megatron", as he calls it) in her back. After eating her first meal at the hospital, and confiding her secrets to the head doctor, Young-goon ponders the meaning of a recurring dream in which her grandmother explains to her the purpose of her existence. Interpreting the lip-read message as that she is in fact a "nuke bomb" that requires a bolt of lightning to detonate, she goes out into a horrendous storm with Il-soon, intending to use her radio's antenna as a lightning rod.

In the middle of the storm, the wind blows away the tent they are using, prompting both of them to scramble about covering the food they had brought with them. Young-goon tries to cover up the opened wine bottle they had brought with them as well, but is unable to find the cork. Hearing her cry out about the wine, Il-soon hastily grabs it from her and covers it with his index finger. Unknown to Young-goon, Il-soon had in fact placed the missing cork on top of the makeshift lightning rod they had constructed, thereby ensuring that they will never get hit by lightning. It reveals that Il-soon never intended for Young-goon to die despite seemingly helping to carry out Young-goon's wishes of 'detonating' and bringing about the 'world's end'. His 'helping out' was in fact his way of protecting Young-goon like the way he installed the 'rice megatron' to induce her to eat. The movie ends with the sunrise, both of them still alive and well, making love under a rainbow.