The Man From Nowhere

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

The Man From Nowhere is a South Korean action film that opened in August 4, 2010. It centers around an ex-Army Intelligence Command operator turned quiet pawnshop owner named Cha Tae-Sik, who is unexpectedly flung into a conflict between the Korean Mafia and South Korean narcotics detectives. However, Cha later takes things personally when a child he knows becomes embroiled in the conflict.

Tropes used in The Man From Nowhere include:
  • Badass: Tae-Sik, hands down.
  • Bad Boss: Mr. Oh. His first scene shows him beating Man-Seok for losing his product. When he learns that the police are surrounding the golf course, he tells none of his mooks and leaves them to stall the cops as he escapes.
    • Man-Seok counts too, since he has Bear murdered as a fall guy, and beats a wounded mook for not loading money fast enough.
  • Badass Boast:

You guys only live for tomorrow, don't you? You don't stand a chance against a guy living for today. I only live for today. I will show you how terrible it's going to be.

  • Big Bad: Mr. Oh looks like this. Nope.
  • Big Bad Wannabe: Mr. Oh. the Seok brothers masterfully set him up for a fall after he beats Man-Seok.
  • Bittersweet Ending: The drug and organ traffickers are dead and gone, and So-Mi was alive after all, but it's heavily implied that Tae-Sik's killing spree is going to end up in him spending time in jail.
  • Blood Knight: Ramrowan.
  • Chekhov's Gun: A surprising amount of them.
    • So-Mi's nail paintings allow the audience to identify a harvested body as one of the children who was just "sent home", showing how evil the villains are.
    • The knife Tae-Sik grabs from the mook accompanying Bear lets him cut through the mesh net and chase Mr. Oh.
    • The cell-phone Man-Seok gives Tae-Sik leads him right into a mob nightclub.
    • Ramrowan executes Mr. Oh while he's offering him money from his meth operation. This seems innocuous, but later in the film Tae-Sik stumbles upon a meth lab run by Jong-Seok.
  • Dark and Troubled Past: Tae-Sik. He watched his pregnant wife get murdered in front of his eyes while he was still a black operations agent.
  • Decoy Protagonist: The lead detective at the beginning. He takes out Bear single-handedly, despite being half his size, and has witty remarks for every occasion. He is still an important character, but after Tae-Sik's introduction turns into an Inspector Javert.
  • The Dog Bites Back: Man-Seok.
  • The Dragon: Ramrowan.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: Ramrowan has a soft spot for So-Mi, and when "500" puts her under to extract her eyes he turns on him and kills him instead.
  • Five-Bad Band: Vague, but it works.
  • Hazy Feel Turn: Ramrowan; he still fights Tae-Sik to the death, but that was out of their mutual respect as warriors. He saves So-Mi from a horrific fate, though.
  • Important Haircut: Tae-Sik reverts to his black-ops haircut, when he decides to get even more serious.
  • Gratuitous English: Ramrowan, the Viet Cong assassin, speaks nothing but English the entire film. May or may not be Fridge Brilliance considering the American involvement in Vietnam.
  • Karmic Death: If they're evil, odds are they die a very, very appropriate death for their crimes. To note:
    • Mr. Oh, the initial Big Bad, winds up getting his organs harvested in his own meth lab.
    • Jong-Seok dies the most horrifically karmic death in the film. Especially so since he has to watch helplessly as it happens.
    • "500" is killed by Ramrowan and gets his own eyes harvested.
  • Kill'Em All: At least for the villains.
    • "Even if So-Mi is found... you two will die."
  • Knife Nut: Ramrowan.
  • Heroic BSOD: Tae-Sik, when he receives what appears to be So-Mi's harvested eyes. Actually, So-Mi is well and alive with both eyes; they're actually the eyes of the surgeon that Ramrowan killed after taking pity on So-Mi.
  • Laser-Guided Karma: The mook accompanying Bear roofies a girl to have sex with her. Two scenes later he's being murdered by Ramrowan for being in the way.
  • Let's Get Dangerous: We only learn Tae-Sik is a black ops agent around half-way through the movie, so when Bear threatens him at the pawnshop the audience is reasonably certain he doesn't stand a chance. One Gilligan Cut later and Bear is on the ground, unconscious and bloodied.
  • Organ Theft: Man-Seok's MO.
  • Papa Wolf: While technically not So-Mi's father, Tae-Sik is practically this.
  • Psycho for Hire: Played around with by Ramrowan. He obviously enjoys his job, but when it comes to women and children (see his reaction to accidentally killing the drugged girl at the nightclub), he wants little to do with them. He's fine with letting the evil people go about their business, but when he's put in charge of ripping So-Mi's eyes out, he kills the surgeon instead.
  • Recycled in Space: It's Taken / Man On Fire in SOUTH KOREA! That doesn't diminish the merits of the film.
  • Super Window Jump: You know the scene.
  • Underestimating Badassery: The Seok Brothers constantly taunt and belittle Tae-Sik. You can guess how that turns out.
  • Why Don't Ya Just Shoot Him: Ramrowan has two golden opportunities to headshot Tae-Sik, but refrains. The first time, it was because Man-Seok wanted him alive. The second time...
  • Worthy Opponent: Ramrowan sees Tae-Sik as this; During the final fight as he watches Tae-Sik butcher all of the other mooks and refuses to shoot him out of respect, instead challenging him to a final showdown.
  • You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: All over the place! A lot of the villains in the film winds up dead at the hands of another villain. If you see Ramrowan, odds are he's killing a villain for getting in the way of his job.
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