ReviewSpecial Delivery movie review: Parasite star Park So-dam in Korean spin on Ryan Gosling action thriller Drive

Park’s plays a hard-as-nails getaway driver who reluctantly protects an orphaned youngster from the clutches of a vile corrupt cop

Undeniably exhilarating in its action sequences, the movie loses traction whenever the dust is allowed to settle

2-MIN READ2-MIN

Park So-dam as getaway driver Jang Eun-ha in a still from Special Delivery (category IIB; Korean), directed by Park Dae-min. Song Sae-byuk co-stars.

Published: 8:45pm, 9 May 2022

3/5 stars

After her breakout performance in Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite, Park So-dam confirms her leading-lady status as a hard-as-nails getaway driver in the action-packed crime thriller Special Delivery.

Through minimal dialogue but lashings of pouty attitude, Park runs circles around her male co-stars as her character reluctantly protects an orphaned youngster from the clutches of Song Sae-byuk’s vile corrupt cop.

While the film is not an official remake of Nicolas Winding Refn’s neon-drenched noir Drive, writer-director Park Dae-min is endlessly indebted to the Ryan Gosling action vehicle. From its central premise to its retro synth score, Special Delivery lifts entire set pieces from the 2011 film.

Both focus on a mysterious loner with a shady past, who works as an expert driver-for-hire, transporting high-risk criminals cross-country at even higher speeds. Both Park’s character Jang Eun-ha and Gosling’s nameless driver work as mechanics by day, sport shiny bomber jackets and live quietly under the radar, only coming under threat after they cross paths with a young child and their wayward father.

Special Delivery’s big hook, which separates it from its influential forerunner, is the gender-flipped protagonist, and the movie goes out of its way to emphasise just how surprising it is to the criminal underworld that a woman like Eun-ha could be such a formidable force.