Yaksha Ruthless Operations Review: Sul Kyung-gu, Park Hae-soo Thriller is Lukewarm

Yaksha Ruthless Operations (야차) is a crime-drama-thriller movie directed by Na Hyun and stars Sul Kyung-gu, Park Hae-soo, Yang Dong-keun, and Lee El, alongside other cast members. The movie has a runtime of 125 minutes.

Netflix describes the movie as:

On assignment in a perilous city to inspect a Black Ops team and its notorious leader, an upstanding prosecutor steps into a deadly war between spies.

– Yaksha Ruthless Operations review does not contain spoilers –

When you have two people from Squid Game, you know it’s going to be interesting. Yaksha Ruthless Operations makes it clear from the first scene that it is not kidding around – a Buddha bomb, a chase sequence, and running over someone; these are just some of the things that you see when you start watching this action-adventure movie. From there on out, it’s a showcasing of power, greed and politics.

Let’s get one thing clear – Yaksha Ruthless Operations is a beautiful film. The colours are rich and the nighttime scenes look ravishing, especially those of the skyline. It’s a treat to watch and the background score is great as well. Another thing that is absolutely necessary when it comes to action movies, is, obviously, the action sequences. I found the action sequences to be quite simple yet effective. Lots of gunfire instead of hand-to-hand combat. It’s nothing out of the world, but it’s not bad. I wish they had tried to do more interesting stuff instead of just shooting bullets from one end to the other. But, they don’t. So that’s something that you need to be ok with.

As Prosecutor Ji-hoon travels to Shenyang on an undercover NIS mission, he uncovers more than he bargained for. As he learns things about the seedy underground of an area teeming with spies, you are reeled into the darkness with another operative, nicknamed Yaksha. It’s a slow-burn with tons of dialogue and is thrilling in some places. The movie takes its time to go to Shenyang but when it does, it picks up its pace quickly.

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Yaksha Ruthless Operations, however, is more politically motivated than action. You get long sequences of conversation where there are expositions and explanations for what’s going on and it’s tamer than what I honestly expected. It doesn’t make it bad or boring, but it definitely is different from the expectations one might have when it comes to movies such as these. It’s interesting to walk down the Chinese alleys filled with secrets and spies… and the occasional rat infestation.

Although without many quick fights, the movie thrills and chills quite well and you’ll be glued to the screen regardless. As the group does one crazy thing after the other, you wonder who else is corrupted and whether another nation is involved in the shitshow. All said and done, at 2 hours, however, it does drag after a while. It showcases a variation of the same things that bog down such a vast runtime and a quicker resolution would’ve made this more of an interesting watch.

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Either way, the movie has some great chemistry among the various characters, especially between Ji-hoon and Kang-in. While the former is the most law-abiding citizen out there, the latter feels like the law doesn’t apply to him. So, you can only imagine how that can turn out. It’s entertaining watching them bicker and fight constantly in these high-pressure situations.

Summing up: Yaksha Ruthless Operations

Yaksha Ruthless Operations is interesting and high-octane although its 2-hour runtime can create somewhat of a problem. It’s a bit sluggish during the last leg and devoid of the action we desperately crave, kind of making watching this a mixed bag.

Yaksha: Ruthless Operations is streaming on Netflix.

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