Review | Hijack 1971 movie review: Ha Jung-woo plays pilot in engrossing Korean terrorist thriller
- The thrills of this true-to-life drama starring Ha Jung-woo are well executed, but it’s the chillingly recreated context that sets it apart
4/5 stars
Inspired by true events, Hijack 1971 recounts the thrilling story of a commercial Korean Air Lines flight that was commandeered and diverted to North Korea by a deluded young terrorist.
Ha Jung-woo stars as Tae-in, a disgraced fighter pilot who finds himself flying the hijacked aircraft while squaring off against Yeo Jin-goo’s troubled young bomber. Sung Dong-il and Chae Soo-bin also star, as the captain and a stewardess respectively.
Beyond the efficiently executed thrills, Kim Sung-han’s film is most effective in its chilling reconstruction of a very specific period in Korean history.
As the film’s title reveals, the action unfolds in 1971, when tensions between North and South Korea were at fever pitch. President Park Chung Hee ruled the South as head of a repressive military dictatorship, and anyone who had any connection to the North was labelled a communist spy and subjected to violent interrogation, torture, or worse.
The prospect of being taken across the border as hostages is terrifying to the passengers and crew aboard the flight, less because they would become prisoners of a communist regime than because of what their own government might subject them to upon their return.
