No Tears for the Dead (or Uneun Namja in Korean, meaning Crying Man) is a 2014 South Korean action thriller film directed by Lee Jeong-beom, who directed The Man from Nowhere. The movie starts Jang Dong-gun and Kim Min-hee. The movie premiered officially in South Korea on July 4, 2014.
The movie centers on a Korean-American man named Gon, who works as a hired assassin in the service of a Los Angeles-based Triad gang after being orphaned due to the death of his mother. During an operation to assassinate a South Korean national trying to sell their assets to the Russian Mafia, Gon executes everyone inside the meeting. But one of the stray bullets fired in the confrontation caused the death of a young South Korean girl. Due to this, Gon became withdrawn to the point that he just wants to retire and live peacefully. His Triad employer agrees, on the condition that he flies to Seoul and assassinate Mo-gyeong Choi, a high-ranking risk manager employed by Ventura Holdings due to the possibility that she could have compromising data stolen from the investment firm that the Triads needs to recover.
When Gon settles down in Seoul and gets to work, he finds out that Mo-gyeong was living a bad life ever since her husband and daughter were killed in America to the point of trying to commit suicide. Due to this, Gon decides to disobey his orders and save Mo-gyeong from being assassinated as the two are hunted by Gon's fellow LA-based assassins and thugs hired to silence her permanently. Gon must uses his assassin skills in order to save her and possibly, find redemption for his sins.
This movie provides examples of:
- Action Film, Quiet Drama Scene: A lot of this occurs, but they mostly show up when Gon tries to remember the decision his mom made to immigrate to America and the final day before she committed suicide.
- Action Prologue: The movie starts when Gon appears in the nightclub backroom and assassinates everyone inside.
- All There in the Script: Some of the character names were not revealed. For instance, Gon's Triad employer's name (Dai Ban) was not revealed in any way, except in cast listing websites on the internet.
- Awesome, but Impractical:
- Gon takes Alvaro's Benelli M3 Super 90 and fires it at Chaoz's position when they raid the apartment complex. While the shotgun is designed to kill or maim people/animals with lead shots, the distance between the two (since the two were shooting at each other via separate apartment blocks) is a bit far that it doesn't do much good in hurting him.
- Later on, Gon uses it effectively when he fires it very close to Chaoz in the same corridor the two are in, forcing the latter to seek cover.
- Bittersweet Ending: Gon has been severely wounded and appears to be dead from major blood loss. In addition, the Triad boss Dai Ban is still out there and probably will know that the last target is still alive. However, all of the major bad guys are dead.
- Bottomless Magazines: Averted in the movie since any character with a gun reloads when they run out of ammo.
- Concealment Equals Cover: Averted when Gon gets to a shootout with Juan. He hides by getting prone on the ground and behind the tire so that the bullets don't hit him as they easily punch through the sedan he just carjacked.
- Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: Played with the Russian mafia men protecting the meeting since they were close to hit Gon. Averted with Juan, Alvaro and Chaoz since they were able to injure him at a few places in the middle of the movie.
- Market-Based Title: While the movie is called Crying Man in South Korea, the international releases are under No Tears for the Dead.
- Meaningful Name: The Korean name of the movie, Crying Man. When Gon returns back to the bathhouse he used to go to before he moved to America, he was seen crying inside as he remembers those days.
- Noodle Incident: Whatever happened with Gon and the other assassins during their time in Cambodia.
- Police Are Useless: The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency gets into this problem when hired thugs waltz into an unmarked van and take out the lone officer protecting Mo-gyeong when the latter realizes that they're there to kill her. It gets worse when one of the officers assigned to protect her was paid off by Ventura Holdings to help put a hit on her.
- Product Placement:
- Hyundai and Kias vehicle show up a lot.
- In terms of small arms, Colt, Benelli and SIG-Sauer firearms are prominent.
- Shown Their Work: Jang Dong-jun had spent several months in America and in South Korea preparing for the titular role by underdoing training sessions in unarmed and armed combat, including handling of small arms to get into the role of a hired assassin.
- SWAT Team: South Korean SWAT teams converge on Ventura Holdings after Gon anonymously called in a tip about an explosion on a nearby building which was his safehouse.
- The Unreveal: The movie doesn't show how Gon's mom fell on hard times or what drove her to abandon her child after they immigrated to America.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Juan and Chaoz kill the arms smuggler at the local port in order to conceal their involvement.
