Remember: Jason and Freddy

Since the Korean War ended in 1953, I'm not sure the math totally works out with Remember, a thriller about Freddy (Lee Sung-min), a beloved geriatric waiter at TGIF, who hires his co-worker Jason (Nam Joo-hyuk) as a driver so he can execute a series of vigilante executions for fellow countrymen who profitted from aligning with the Japanese during occupation. That would make all the guilty men tweens which makes their actions seem infinitely less calculating, although not less upsetting. I personally allowed myself to succumb to this revenge fantasy's logic. Justice is in such short supply lately, that a one-man judge-jury-executioner who's going after slimeballs with good PR teams has serious appeal.

Especially when the two lead actors — Lee and Nam — have such undeniable chemistry. Whether they're evading Detective Kang (Jeong Man-sik) or outwitting a middle-management menace (Yun Je-mun), you never doubt these two have each other's back. And writer-director Lee Il-hyeong's script provides plenty of conflicts that find the two in double-David versus gang Goliath scenarios and last-minute escapes. It's weird to have a movie that's so dark elicit "That's so cute" reactions so regularly but the statement was never made without pleasure. Running over two hours, Remember kept me up late without regret.