Endless storm of action in South Korean 'Typhoon'

Typhoon, from South Korea, is an international caper with James Bond and Tom Clancy overtones - and Austin Powers undertones, too.

It has piracy on the high seas, it has high-tech espionage, it has fast and furious freeway chases, and it has a nuclear scare that threatens to irradiate half of Asia.

A huge hit in its homeland (where its themes of the North-South schism hold obvious relevance), Typhoon stars Jung-Jae Lee as a decorated naval officer and spy guy recruited to track down and terminate a maniacal menace named Sin (Dong-Kun Jang, from The Promise).

Early on in this zooming, chaotic thriller, Sin and his crew hijack a freighter carrying a secret cargo of nuclear waste (from Chernobyl, no less).

Earlier on, there's a flashback in which a little boy sees his mother killed and runs into the trees with his little sister to escape. That boy would be Sin, and he has spent the rest of his life hatching this plot of vengeance against the North Koreans - well, heck, against all of Korea. Why not?

Director Kyung-Taek Kwak orchestrates all this with flair, but leading man Lee doesn't have much to offer beyond a steely stoicism, and Jang's histrionic villainy borders on the parodic.

The film's title refers to a meteorological occurrence that Sin hopes to exploit for his own evil devices, but it's also an apt metaphor for the drenching downpour of action that Typhoon delivers - without relief.

Contact movie critic Steven Rea

at 215-854-5629 or srea@phillynews.com. Read his recent work at http://go.philly.com/

stevenrea.

Typhoon

** 1/2 (out of four stars)

Written and directed by Kyung-Taek Kwak. With Dong-Kun Jang and Jung-Jae Lee. In Korean with subtitles.

Running time: 2 hours, 4 mins.

Parent's guide: R (violence, adult themes)

Playing at: Ritz Five