Ryoo Seung-Wan's Film The Berlin File

Berlin has always been one of the world’s most interesting cities. From its early socialist rallies of WWI to the destruction of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the city has historically played a crucial role in many international conflicts, disputes, deals, and resolutions. Such is the case in Ryoo Seung-wan’s film The Berlin File. Released in 2013, the movie centers on a North Korean spy that is forced to go on the run in the city after an illegal arms deal falls through. This South Korean spy film is a thriller for the ages that encapsulates an interesting take on genre and has similar themes to several other Asian martial arts films. The Los Angeles Times describes the martial arts film genre as a subgenre of an action film. A martial arts film will tell a story utilizing several training and battle scenes between main characters. The spy film

He is only shooting back at those who are trying to kill he and his wife. The two genres are independent, but they merge well to give the audience quite the suspenseful ride. Given these facts, it would be hard to classify The Berlin File under one category over the other. Rather, the movie is a distinct combination of both martial arts and spy genres. One of the movies that The Berlin File has many similarities with is Kang Je-gyu’s 1999 film Shiri. Kang is a South Korean director just as Ryoo Seung-wan is. In Shiri, a rogue group of North Korean spies attempts to assassinate the North and South Korean leaders to start another revolution with the hopes of reuniting both countries. One of the biggest themes between both Shiri and The Berlin File is the concept of nationality. Regardless of the fact that the latter is set in Berlin, the most important element of both films is the separation of North and South Korea. Not only is the separation important, but the differences in the two peoples is highlighted as well. In Shiri, this is very transparent because the rogue North