South Korean thrillers have the uncanny ability to skillfully merge a cat-and-mouse element with a compelling central emotional angle, with prominent examples including Deliver Us from Evil (2020), I Saw the Devil (2010), and Night in Paradise (2020). Park Dae Min’s Special Delivery is no exception, as it follows a similar pattern, and despite its generic nature, the film nevertheless is a tightly paced, high-octane action thriller that delivers.
Park So-Dam, best known for her role in Parasite, plays Eun-ha, a skilled driver who specializes in performing unconventional and often illegal deliveries, such as transporting stolen goods, acting as a getaway driver for criminals, and ferrying people on the run. One day, she gets an assignment to pick up a client named Kim Doo-shik (Yeon Woo-jin), a former baseball player now involved in the sports gambling trade. After his name is exposed in the match-fixing scandal by the media, he steals the security key of a bank account that holds US$30 million from his boss and gambling mastermind Jo Kyeong-pil (Song Sae-byeok), who also happens to be a police officer, in hopes of escaping the country with his son, Kim Seo-won (Jung Hyeon-jun). While Eun-ha is at the pickup point, waiting for her client and his son, Kyeong-pil finds Doo-shik and kills him, but the boy manages to escape with the bank security key and joins her. Thus begins a cat-and-mouse game between Eun-ha and the police, as the boy’s protection and safety fall on her shoulders.
The film begins with an excellent car chase sequence, reminiscent of Edgar Wright’s opening scene in Baby Driver, in which Eun-ha acts as a getaway driver for a couple of thieves who have robbed a joint and are now on the run. The action moves from highways to narrow alleys at night, where she is constantly surrounded and pursued by multiple cars, making her escape increasingly harder. The action choreography is impressive in cornering her from all sides during the chase and devising clever methods for her to escape. As the film proceeds, Eun-ha encounters more threatening characters, and I was impressed by the staging of the action sequences, given that she has no idea how to fight. But that rhythm was broken during the final climactic action scene by having her seemingly acquire new fighting abilities out of nowhere.
The relationship between Eun-ha and Kim Seo-won, which serves as the film’s emotional core, is handled gracefully. Initially, when she is stuck with him, she doesn’t want to get involved and get into trouble, especially considering her shady past, which is why she even leaves him with a man who handles abandoned kids. But, in the end, her moral compass triumphs over rationality, forcing her to get him back. Eventually, their bond grows strong enough for it to be worthwhile for her to keep fighting for him.
The film becomes highly predictable towards the end. The makers answer the questions posed by the end of the second act through a climactic action set piece, which they try to make suspenseful till the end. But the action sequence fails to deliver due to sloppy execution, rendering the conclusion entirely predictable. Park So-dam is fantastic in the role of Eun-ha; her laid-back demeanor exudes coolness, and her natural charisma makes the film enjoyable.
Although it doesn’t accomplish anything out of the ordinary or put a new spin on the genre, Special Delivery is still a delightful watch and will satisfy action genre aficionados.
Special Delivery movie link: IMDB
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