COMMITMENT (2013)

No one does espionage thrillers like South Korea, and Commitment stars Choi Seung Hyun (better known as T.O.P in the uber-successful Korean boy band BigBang) as North Korean teenager Myung-hoon, who - when his father is killed after a failed job - is forced into training as a spy in order to save his younger sister.  Arriving in Seoul two years later, he goes undercover as a high school student, ordered to track down an assassin who is killing off North Korean members of the spy ring Section 8, but soon learns that even his own countrymen can't be trusted - and that no one gets home alive.  T.O.P is incredible here, so good I had to keep reminding myself that this was the guy from BigBang (and that's an achievement, as his branding as a pop star is so solid it borders on iconic), and while this isn't a rollercoaster of tension like The Suspect, Commitment combines action, drama, even a love story - about this amazing kid, who only wants to keep his sister safe - into a moving film that, yeah, had my eyes moist as the end credits rolled. (not rated)  A-

COMMITMENT trailer