Escape from Mogadishu (2021)

 

                “Escape from Mogadishu” is a South Korean political thriller set in Mogadishu, Somalia.  It was directed and written by  Ryoo Seung-wan (The Battleship  Island).  It is based on the real-life  machinations of the two Koreas when they were trying to get admitted to the United Nations.  It was the highest grossing Korean movie of 2021.  The film was South  Korea’s submission for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film, but it was not chosen.  It did, however, receive numerous awards in South Korea including Best Film at the Bull Film Awards and the Blue Dragon Film Awards.

                In the 1980s, both Koreas were using diplomacy to try to get the requisite votes to get into the United Nations.  One route to membership was by schmoozing the African bloc.  One of those targets was Somalia.  Basically, the Korean diplomats tried to bribe the government into voting for them.  This got complicated when a rebellion occurs in 1990.  One of the rebel factions is led by a warlord named Aidid.  (For you war movie fans, you might recognize him as the target for the mission that resulted in Black Hawk Down.)  The North and South Korean embassies are in the thick of the turmoil that comes with civil war.  South Korean ambassador Han (Kim Sin-seong) is robbed of gifts he is bringing to the current leader of Somalia.  Turns out the robbers were in cahoots with the North Koreans.  Not that the South Koreans are innocent in the skullduggery department.  They have bribed a reporter to implicate the North Koreans for supplying weapons to the rebels.  Fittingly, both groups get in deep shit when the rebellion breaks out.  The North Koreans are forced to ignominiously seek refuge with the South Koreans.  AWKWARD!  After grudgingly coming to terms with their mutual predicament, they agree to work together to get to the Italian embassy .  The Italians have promised a flight out of hell.  But first, they will have to travel in a ragtag motorcade through a war zone.

                I am a big fan of South Korean war movies.  But most of those are set in the Korean War.  Before South Korean movies entered their current boom in critical acclaim, their war movies were already acclaimed by war movie fans.  South  Korea has carved a niche for itself by featuring over the top combat as in movies like “Tae Guk Gi” and Ryoo’s “The Battleship Island”.  “Escape from Mogadishu” is not a typical Korean war movie.  It is a movie set in a civil war.  Only one side is firing, the non-Korean side.  After all, the protagonists are politicians and diplomats, not soldiers.  The movie does not resemble South Korea’s combat porn until the last act.  Before then, there is a tongue in cheek vibe to the mayhem the Koreans have dumped on them.  The last act will be more recognizable to fans like me.  It is one long insane ride through the streets of Mogadishu in cars that have been uparmored by duck taping books all over them.  It is fast and furious, Korean style.  The movie may be based on a real civil war that impacted the two embassies, but don’t expect realistic bloodshed.  No one should have survived the incredible expenditure of ammo, books or no books.  But heck, it sure is entertaining.

                The caravan scene redeems a movie that is not memorable before then.  The acting is fine with no standouts.  The actual standouts are the stunt drivers and the bullet effects crew.  The sets are noteworthy as the set designer was adept at the African civil war look.  The movie certainly gets the coup vibe right.  If you watch the movie, you will learn a little about how messy an African civil war can be, but you should not expect a documentary.  But you won’t get South Korean propaganda either.  The movie respects both embassies as fellow Koreans, not evil Northerners and good Southerners.  The villains are balanced by having each embassy’s intelligence chief doing the nefarious beneath the table vote manipulation.  Refreshingly, the movie does not swing the pendulum of mutual suspicion all the way to hugs and kisses.  In the end, there is respect, but no defections.

GRADE  =  B