DOUBLE AGENT (JI JOONG GAN CHEOP) Asian New Classics

As the Cold War fades from public consciousness, cinematic depictions of the espionage during that era remain feverishly alive. Putting aside the American viewpoint, how do other societies look back and judge those chilly times?

Part of a wave of recent Korean films set in the 1980s, DOUBLE AGENT begins as a North Korean agent defects to the South. Agent Lim (Han Suk-kyu, star of SHIRi and TELL ME SOMETHING) does not receive a warm welcome. He is brutally tortured by intelligence agents who believe him to be a double agent. They are correct in their assumptions, but Agent Lim deceives them for years, long enough to set in motion a dangerous plan to undermine North/South relations.

DOUBLE AGENT excels at dramatizing the moments between the headlines, when minds are percolating and people are thinking and strategizing. It makes clear that the casualties of the Cold War suffered just as much as those of any other war.