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The Age of Shadows

The Age of Shadows

Action · Thriller · History · 2016

Set in the late 1920s, The Age of Shadows follows the cat-and-mouse game that unfolds between a group of resistance fighters trying to bring in explosives from Shanghai to destroy key Japanese facilities in Seoul, and Japanese agents trying to stop them.

Movie details

The Age of Shadows

“Infiltrate and deceive.”

2016 Action · Thriller · History 2h 20m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

7.1 / 10

12.1K votes

Rotten Tomatoes

100 %

Tomatometer

Metacritic

78 / 100

Metascore

TMDB

7.2 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

Set in the late 1920s, The Age of Shadows follows the cat-and-mouse game that unfolds between a group of resistance fighters trying to bring in explosives from Shanghai to destroy key Japanese facilities in Seoul, and Japanese agents trying to stop them.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over The Age of Shadows?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Where it lives

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Kim Jee-woon

Written by

Lee Ji-min · Park Jong-dae

Song Kang-ho

Song Kang-ho

Lee Jung-chool

Gong Yoo

Gong Yoo

Kim Woo-jin

Han Ji-min

Han Ji-min

Yun Gye-soon

Shingo Tsurumi

Shingo Tsurumi

Higashi

Um Tae-goo

Um Tae-goo

Hashimoto

Shin Sung-rok

Shin Sung-rok

Jo Hwe-ryung

Lee Byung-hun

Lee Byung-hun

Jung Chae-san

Court is in session

Put The Age of Shadows on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Big-Idea Head

“Ambition earns the room.”

The film reaches for consequence and scale, accepting the risk of seriousness instead of shrinking from it.

The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist

“Importance has entered the chat.”

The production keeps announcing its significance, as though awards-season posture were proof of insight.