At times, reality outpaces fiction, as actual events can seem more far-fetched and cinematic than the movies themselves. This is the experience audiences may encounter with “Hijack 1971.”
The action-thriller, starring Ha Jung-woo and Yeo Jin-goo, is based on a true event from 1971, when a young South Korean man attempted to hijack a passenger plane departing from the eastern port city of Sokcho, bound for Seoul.
The movie revisits the historic event with cinematic imagination, reconstructing the hectic one-hour struggle in Korea’s airspace involving pilots Tae-in (Ha) and Kyu-sik (Sung Dong-il), and the attempted hijacker Yong-dae (Yeo) who threatens the pilots to redirect the plane toward North Korea.
The plane plunges into utter chaos as Yong-dae detonates a hand-grenade and swiftly takes control of the cockpit. Having endured years of hardship after being falsely labeled a North Korean sympathizer, he believes he will earn hero status if he succeeds in defecting to the North.
With Captain Kyu-sik losi
ng sight in his left eye due to the explosion, now it is up to Tae-in to confront Yong-dae and save the passengers.
Mostly filmed inside the small plane with approximately 50-60 seats, meticulously recreated by the production team to reflect historical accuracy, the movie attempts to capture the extreme tension among the passengers by closely focusing on their fearful expressions and developing individual narratives.
But it appears to fall short in conveying the genuine intensity of the dramatic real-life event it was based on. The life-or-death situation, where a simple slip of the fingers could trigger another deadly explosion, appears to lack the requisite suspense.
The main antagonist, Yong-dae, fails to exude the villainous presence to instill sheer terror in both the passengers and potentially the audience. Actor Yeo, known for his exemplary-student-like image, has said he tried to keep an emotional distance from his character to avoid sympathizing excessively with the attempted hijacker’s story. Yon
g-dae’s misfortune, shaped by the divided Korean Peninsula, feels rather formulaic and conventional.
Most of the main characters, including Tae-in, appear surprisingly calm considering the extreme fear of the situation, which diminishes the realism derived from the real-life event and may hinder audiences from fully immersing themselves in it. Certain storylines, like the newly appointed young prosecutor and his deaf mother who sacrifices everything for her son’s success, come across as too melodramatic and cliched to be genuinely engaging.
But some airborne scenes, where South Korean Air Force fighter jets chase the plane to stop it from crossing the border and the plane ascends vertically, provide a thrilling spectacle. The safe emergency landing of the plane, now heavily damaged, also offers pure relief and serves as a powerful cinematic climax, especially given that it is based on a real-life event.
Director Kim Sung-han said after a press screening for the film Thursday that he aimed to explore “the c
hoices people make at the end of their lives” and provoke contemplation on “what choices we could make in that situation.”
It marks the feature debut for Kim, who previously served as assistant director on the hit political film “1987: When the Day Comes” (2017), starring Kim Yoon-seok and also Ha.
“Hijack 1971” is scheduled for release next Friday.
Source: Yonhap News Agency
