Decibel: Is That a Bomb I Hear?

Pure popcorn entertainment, Hwang In-ho's Decibel pits beloved Submarine Commander Kang Do-Young (Kim Rae-won) against former Staff Sergeant Jeong Tae-Ryoung (Cha Eun-woo), a madman planting explosives around town; specifically, bombs triggered by high sound levels meaning the kids at the neighborhood playground, at the public pool, and at the soccer game all need to hush. Good luck with that! As the uniformed Kang scrambles from one potential mass murder to the next, he's assisted by his wife Jang Yu-Jeong (Lee Sang-hee) who happens to be bomb squad brass and CBC reporter Oh Dae-oh (Jung Sang-hoon) who's oddly nonchalant when it comes to protecting his own son. (Happy to report he can take care of himself.)

Some people do get blown up, though. An underwater accident, revealed in flashback, has deaths in store fos us too — albeit of a nobler variety. Per the psychopathic-driven disaster movie genre's preset rules, the crazed mastermind does have a legitimate reason for causing citywide mayhem but his choice of a target feels a little misguided. When you're that filled with that much rage, directing your ire at the right person is often challenging. Inevitably, there's gonna be spill. In this case, there's also going to be debris. And a big news conference at the end where one now-wiser journalist asks,"What did you learn from all this?" As a viewer, feel free to skip that question.