Shiri (1999) on Netflix
South Korea's intelligence service hunts Lee Bang-hee, a North Korean sniper sent south as a sleeper agent. Yu Jong-won leads the case while hiding his work from his fiancée, Myung-hyun.
- Netflix3.1/5
- IMDb6.5/108,973 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes59%
Trailer
Plot summary
North Korean soldiers undergo a brutal training regime under their commander, Park Mu-young, and are sent into South Korea as sleeper agents to be reactivated later. Lee Bang-hee, the most promising of them, is a sniper who assassinates leading South Korean figures over the following years. South Korea's intelligence service hunts her, and Yu Jong-won runs the case with his partner, Lee Jang-gil. Yu is engaged to Myung-hyun, a former alcoholic who owns a fish and aquarium supply store, and his security clearance keeps him from telling her what his job involves.
Cast
- Park Eun-sookas Lee Bang-hee
- Kim Sang-mias Soo
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Shiri (1999)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Shiri drew 6.9 million cinema-goers in South Korea, beating the previous record of 4.3 million set by Titanic.
- Shiri was the first Hollywood-style big-budget blockbuster produced in the new South Korean film industry that followed the country's late-1990s economic boom.
- Shiri set out to be the first major-release film to directly address Korean reunification, a theme echoed by a monologue in which the antagonist Park Mu-young describes fish living in waters flowing from both Koreas.
- Shiri's budget of $8.5 million was, at the time, the single biggest budget ever allocated to a South Korean film.
