SECRETLY, GREATLY (2013)

Dong-gu (Kim Soo-hyun, in a stellar performance) is sort of the village idiot in his shantytown neighborhood in Seoul.  He wears the same green track suit every day, falls down a lot, gets picked on by neighborhood kids, and is always grinning like a doofus, laughing at nothing in particular.  He lives above a small store run by an elderly lady who's sort of taken him in - but what she (in fact no one) knows is that Dong-gu is actually Captain Won Ryu-hwan, a highly-trained, very deadly North Korean spy who has been undercover for two years now, in the simpleton character his government set up for him, awaiting orders.  When two other young guys, secret agents from the north, show up in town as well, Won is sure their missions are about to be realized ... but when the notice comes, it not what any of them expects.  The first half of this film plays like a comedy - and it is both funny and touching - but then the film flips and you're watching a full-fledged spy thriller; one that, in the end, left me crying so hard. the tears were still flowing when I went to bed later that night.  One amazing movie, with a dynamite cast.  Just have tissues.  Lots of them. (not rated)  A

SECRETLY, GREATLY trailer