Shiri (1999)

Shiri (Korean: 쉬리; RR: Swiri) is a 1999 South Korean action spy film, written and directed by Kang Je-gyu. It was the first Hollywood-style big-budget blockbuster to be produced in the new Korean film industry (i.e. after Korea's major economic boom in the late 1990s). Created as a deliberate homage to the "high-octane" action film made popular by Hollywood through the 1980s, it also contained a story that draws on strong Korean national sentiment to fuel its drama. Much of the film's visual style is shared with that of Asian action cinema, particularly Hong Kong action cinema such as John Woo, Tsui Hark, Ringo Lam, and the relentless pace of the second unit directors, like Vic Armstrong and Guy Hamilton, in the James Bond films.

The film was released under the name Shiri outside of South Korea; in South Korea the title was spelled Swiri. The name refers to Coreoleuciscus splendidus, a fish found in Korean fresh-water streams. At one point in the film antagonist Park Mu-young has a monologue wherein he describes how the waters from both North and South Korea flow freely together, and how the fish can be found in either water without knowing to which it belongs. This ties into the film's ambitions to be the first major-release film to directly address the still-thorny issue of Korean reunification.