‘Illang: The Wolf Brigade’ Is A Visually Stunning Sheep Bogged Down By Bloated Wolf’s Clothing [Review]

A near-future dystopia yarn that tries to tell about two stories too many, “Illang: The Wolf Brigade” nevertheless goes gleefully all-in with its action, production values, and plot twists. Which is to say that director Kim Jee-woon has thrown everything at the wall with his newest film, and while a few entertaining things stick, most everything else peels off and lands with a thud.

An extended opening narration sequence fills the audience in on the world ‘Illang’ inhabits, where Korea of 2024 is split apart between ideological factions in favor of, and opposed to, unification. North-South unification is imminent, however, so those opposed form a terrorist organization known as The Sect to challenge the government’s plans. An anti-terrorist squad, Special Unit, is formed to combat The Sect and the bloody struggle that ensues forms the basis for the conflicts presented in ‘Illang.’

Strap in, though, because this is just what’s laid out in the prologue. As ‘Illang’ proceeds, years pass and other government agencies and assassination squads like Public Security and Wolf Brigade are introduced, along with a beleaguered protagonist, Special Unit Officer Lim (Gang Dong-won). Lim struggles with the brutality of the conflict, and is introduced to the audience when he corners a young dissident that would rather blow herself up than be taken alive. This kicks off a series of events that overshadow any attempts to provide Lim with even the most basic character arc, as the movie is too busy laying out double, triple, and quadruple crosses within this tangled narrative’s framework to bother with such pleasantries.

‘Illang’ is an adaptation of the 1999 Japanese anime “Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade,” and the stretch marks from this labored transition are all over the new product. Rather than introduce any of the characters or world-building elements organically, title cards are employed to present new characters while long monologues detail new twists that the bloated story must introduce to make sense of each new action set-piece. Lim hooks up with Lee Yoon-hee (Han Hyo-Joo), who he knows as the sister of the young girl that blew herself up, yet this too becomes complicated by more plot twists that lead to the pair setting off on their own adventure.

If one is paying close attention, the conceit of the story as a functioning, sensible narrative does all fall in line, yet it’s all kind of unnecessary. There are too many heroes here, all with their own messy backstory. Rather than give any of them their full due, ‘Illang’ tries to shuffle each into a frenetic action flick that could have succeeded with any one of them exploring a fully realized narrative. And besides, all of it just leads back to Lim battling wave after wave of anonymous Sect or government stooges, which would be a problem for any other human being that isn’t John Wick’s cousin. Okay, not really, but the action does play like a Korean version of Reeve’s eponymous hitman, and represents some of the most entertaining bits of ‘Illang.’

Even so, there’s just too much going on, here. The movie feels like a pound of gravy poured over a single piece of toast, and by the end of everything, it’s hard to care about anybody’s story. Kim Jee-woon’s action prowess and visual flair are both on display in ‘Illang,’ as it is often visually stunning, and does click along at a nice pace when Lim is head-shooting his way through lounges and parking lots. Yet at 140+ minutes, it takes far too long to get where it needs to go, and a tedious plot stocked with under-baked characters doesn’t make it easy for the audience to buy into what’s at stake.

Much like the Little Red Riding Hood trope that ‘Illang’ goes back to again and again, the movie is one big deception. Hiding beneath the welcoming veneer of grandma’s clothes is a hungry wolf waiting to devour an audience that thinks it is going in for an interesting, thoughtful action flick. Yet the teeth and claws give ‘Illang’ away and reveal the hastily assembled deception for what it is: a poor imitation of something better. [D+]