First explain this strange name, Mogadishu is the capital of Somalia in Africa, it is said that the original name of the film was "Escape", I don't know why it was finally changed to "Mogadishu", in fact, it should be called "Escape from Mogadishu" is more appropriate, perhaps afraid of being labeled as a genre film of "Escape from Tehran".
The director of this film, Liu Shengquan, the former work "Berlin" is a movie that I like very much, in my mind it can almost be compared with "Spy Heavy", and ha Zhengyu's final open-ended ending is also similar to Jason. Bourne was very similar, leaving such a big mouth, I had been expecting him to shoot the sequel while it was hot like the latter.
This film is based on real events, involving historical events in North and South Korea, but unlike the popular action genre films that Yoo Seung-gwan is good at in the past, in the past, it was the North and the South who fought, or the northerners themselves cleaned up the northerners, but this film is in the turbulent and tragic situation of the external environment, the diplomats of the North and the South work together to fight the siege and get self-redemption.
The story is set in the late 1980s, when South Korea was not accepted by the United Nations, and in order to win the vote for the support of various small African countries (which is not very familiar), diplomats were stationed in these countries to set up embassies and lobby for it, including Somalia. At the same time, north Korea also for the same purpose in the country stationed, each other for each other's plans to set up a variety of obstacles and sabotage, the beginning of the film is the South Korean counselor from the country to bring a well-prepared gift to the Somali president, but by the North Korean counselor and local gangsters directly on the road to the airport "cut off", the small gangsters robbed are loaded with live ammunition, merciless direct shooting, not only revealed the current situation of local public order chaos, but also for the second half of the film to fall into each other into hellish scene encounters laid the groundwork.
In the 1990 Somali coup d'état, the entire capital was suddenly thrown into a state of anarchy, all the legal system, civilization, restraint, and humanity were all gone, the city was filled with smoke and corpses, becoming a purgatory on earth, diplomats from both koreas failed to evacuate successfully, the North Korean consulate was looted first, personal safety was lost, diplomats dragged their families and mouths, and several children were trapped. A group of people can only risk their lives to walk to the Chinese consulate on the street for help, but found that there have long been people going to the empty building is being looted by the mob, and then to return to the same place is impossible, at this time the mob found that the step by step of the group passed by the South Korean consulate, risking treason and forced to ask for help from the compatriots who were originally dressed in water but turned against each other, at that time South Korea was also in the midst of white terror, and the people who took care of these northerners also took political risks, but the kindness of humanity in the rain of bullets finally defeated political correctness. The South Korean consulate finally opened its doors and let the North Korean diplomats in. However, this was only a short period of tranquility, and soon even the place fell, and the Koreans finally reached a consensus, "do not talk about reunification, just to survive", and work together to break out of the siege and flee Mogadishu.
Of course, if the film only narrates the process of escape, it is still an ordinary action genre film, and the difference is that the climax is not on the thrilling road from birth to death, we think so, but find that this process only provokes our adrenaline rush, just a physical climax, until the last crowd finally boards the fleeing plane, when the plane lands in another safe city, the government personnel of their respective countries wait on the tarmac, this group of people who have just crossed the line of life and death together. Immediately tacitly pretending not to know each other, getting off the plane and boarding the bus of their respective governments to pick up, not even being able to look sideways and turn back, when the two cars carrying a group of people went in opposite directions, the kind of wanting to rebuild flesh and blood on the shattering of life was finally shattered, and the sense of powerlessness of the fate of the home country and the sadness of the beautiful vision of the final disillusionment suddenly surged into the heart, and this moment finally set off a tragic climax in the spiritual sense.
When everyone is faced with life and death, they can temporarily abandon different ideologies, but once they survive, the ideology immediately awakens, and those who have experienced it know that in some countries, in a sense, it is also a line of life and death, no less than the blood and cruelty of war.
As the South Korean counsellor ended up very vaguely exhorting the North Korean consulate staff: "Do you want to go back?" Didn't you already bring your child out? The other party calmly replied: When we come out to be diplomats, we must leave at least one relative in Pyongyang, and if we don't go back, the children there will be orphans...
The most valuable thing about this film, and what is different from other north-south antagonistic genre films, is that the political tendencies in it are extremely restrained and stoic, adding some conscious brushwork to the realistic method, and trying to use an almost objective perspective to narrate the most simple emotions in human nature.
The film won the 42nd Korean Film Blue Dragon Awards for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Supporting Actor, and can be regarded as the best Korean film of 2021. Whether we can follow "Parasite" and achieve another good result at the Oscars, let's all look forward to it together.