Oh ho! Look at that! My very first Asian movie review! Yippee yai yo, let me go wipe my tears away first! *sobs*

I am a procrastinator, if you must know. I’ve been wanting to watch all the movies that T.O.P starred in but I just did not find the time to sit down, search for his movies and watch it. But today, I decided that my procrastination must stop and looked at the list of movies. After reading the synopsis, I took a chance on Commitment first, mostly because I am quite intrigued by the whole North-South Korea conflict.

And now, here I am, typing my thoughts down, snots and all.

Commitment tells the story of a son of an ex-North Korean spy who was deemed a traitor. Due to his death, his son, Li Myung-hoon, and daughter, Hye-in, were sent to a labour camp. To protect his younger sister, he was proposed a deal – be an assassin and finished the job his dad was sent to do. Two years later, he was brought into the South, disguised as a high school student, adopted by two North Korean spies. In school, he befriended a bullied schoolgirl who had the same name as his sister. He then received his first mission – to find the assassin who worked for an opposing faction and killed the North Korean agents. What he did not know was that there was a power struggle back in North Korea. Due to that, from becoming a hunter, he was now the hunted.

Let’s face it, I watched this because of T.O.P. So let’s get straight to the very reason why I watched it – his acting. T.O.P, whose real name is Choi Seunghyun, is from the Korean boyband, BIGBANG. I’ve not seen him act unless you count music videos as acting. But beyond that, I’ve not seen him act. He’s real good in Loser music video, I must say. But that’s as far as I go. I really wanted to know how good he will be in an actual movie. I’ve really chosen a good movie to see him act in.

T.O.P was able to show quite clearly Myung-hoon’s struggle to survive for his sister. You could see he’s a bad-ass assassin but behind all those kick-ass moves, T.O.P still showed that innocence in Myung-hoon, to not let the audience forget that Myung-hoon is still just a kid. It’s not easy to show that but he did it brilliantly. That is why he won the Rookie award for this role in the 17th BIFF Asia Star Awards, making him the first and possibly only Korean to ever done so.

His acting aside, the movie is really good to watch if you are as intrigued by the conflict as I do. I’m not sure how true it is but we’ve heard everywhere in the news about North Korean defectors to spies, etc. I’m pretty sure the movie is not that far-fetched, as fictional as it is.

The acting from all the cast are equally brilliant. Yong Je-moon acting as Cha Jung-min was absolutely fantastic. I don’t know this man but he depicted his own struggle between following the orders of the upper management to doing what he knew is right and good. The audience themselves would have that internal struggle going “Is he a good guy or a bad guy?” Honestly, there’s no clear line between the two in this movie and that’s what makes this movie awesome.

So, if you have not watched this movie and am curious by the acting chops of the charming rapper of BIGBANG, T.O.P, go ahead and watch it. It’s not in the cinema since it’s been out two years ago but I’m pretty sure you can find a way to watch it anyway.

I give this movie 4 out of 5.

The trailer…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZZsAoBl9b4