HUMINT (as in “human intelligence”) is a 2026 South Korean thriller from writer/director Ryoo Seung-wan (THE CITY OF VIOLENCE, ESCAPE FROM MOGADISHU). It stars Zo In-sung (THE GREAT BATTLE) as Manager Zo, an agent for South Korea’s National Intelligence Service who goes undercover to bust human traffickers.

In the opening he’s at a brothel to record the final testimony of his informant, Soo-rin, on the last day before they’re supposed to get her out and back to her family. When she escaped North Korea she was trafficked by the Russian mafia and now is heavily scarred, addicted and desperate. The trouble is that Zo’s handlers, talking to him in his earpiece, are only interested in the narcotics part of her story, and aren’t sure she’s given them enough. After Soo-rin causes a scene that draws the attention of her pimp, Zo learns that the budget to move her hasn’t even been approved yet. He bows his head and asks his team, “Is this seriously… the best we can do?”

Soo-rin gets a beating while he follows his orders to walk away and “not engage.” Except then he thinks better of it, and there’s an excellent fight scene. When more thugs arrive he pulls his gun, and his handlers tell him, “If you open fire there’s no turning back.” He thinks about it for a moment, then turns the gun around and uses it like a hammer.

In a way this is like the classic opening of OUT FOR JUSTICE, where Gino Felino blows a stakeout because he can’t stand to watch a pimp slap around a pregnant lady. In this case it’s less of a Just-How-Badass-Is-He? and more of a character moment. It shows Zo’s frustrations with the job and gives him extra motivation for his hardcore dedication to protecting his next informant. You see (opening scene spoiler), in the scuffle the pimp shoots Soo-rin up with something and though Zo carries her out of there and they use a defibrillator and CPR she does not make it. It’s so much harsher than if she’d just died at the brothel. It gets your hopes up before it lets you have it. It’s brutal.

The fight scene had me thinking this would be one of the relentless modern action movies we have coming from so many parts of the world now, but then it becomes a slow burn thriller. A good one. I was worried for a bit because at the same time it slows down it moves from South Korea to Russia, from vivid color and texture to bleak greyness. Zo convinces the higher ups to let him move on this information that Soo-rin was trafficked by the Russian mafia in Vladivostok with the involvement of the North Korean consulate.

Five months later he’s undercover with a complicated routine for meeting with a North Korean waitress named Seon-hwa (Shin Se-kyung) who’s forced to drug and have sex with clients, and who’s trying to defect. But they’re in danger of being caught by a sadistic North Korean security official, Park Geon (Park Jeong-min), whose Just-How-Evil-Is-He? introduction involves getting a guy to sign a confession by clicking and unclicking a ballpoint pen inside his nostril. And then a hotshot consul general, Hwang Chi-seong (Park Hae-joon), arrives from Pyongyang with his own agenda. The main reason I say that he’s a hotshot is that he wears a cool leather jacket with a fleece collar that he always wears up, giving him a cold weather James Dean type of aura.

The story alternates between the different characters, letting us piece together what they’re all up to and anticipate when they’ll intersect. It’s a spy movie for the surveillance era, and everyone pretty much has cameras on each other, so they can’t hide what they’re up to forever. There’s another major player, the mob bass Aleksei (Robert Maaser, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – ROGUE NATION, 1917, BALLERINA), who we first see just as a photo. Seon-hwa says she’s not even allowed to lay eyes on someone that important, so neither do we for a while.

When we do he’s a large man with striking features, bleach blond hair, an enormous turtleneck and even larger fur collar on his leather trenchcoat. It’s a pretty absurd look that really pops in the middle of this movie – the kind of style you only want if you’re a pro-wrestler, the white villain in an Asian movie, or perhaps a Russian gangster. I was guessing that he was probly all three, but I looked it up and Maaser was not a wrestler, but a champion of something called “wheel gymnastics” before becoming a stuntman and then an actor.

I don’t want to call this an action movie, but when the fuse finally burns all the way it delivers quite a payload, with just the right mix of character drama and well choreographed violence. We’ve learned that (spoiler) Chi-seong is Seon-hwa’s heartbroken ex, who’s trying to use his status to get her out of trouble, but she’s about to be literally shipped off as merchandise in a bullet-proof case. There’s an incredible scene where he finds Zo’s secret hideout and partner Manager Im (Jung Yoo-jin). She puts up a fight and they end up falling over the edge of a spiral staircase, slowing their fall by almost catching onto the side a couple different times. It looks incredibly painful though!

Another simple action concept I don’t think I’ve seen before: two guys in cars shooting out their driver side windows at each other while doing donuts in a snowy parking lot. Vladivostok Drift.

The concept of trafficking victims in clear boxes is more outrageous than the rest of the movie, but it’s so clever because it establishes a perfect location for a shootout where we know at least the trafficking victims are safe, and also we know where our guys can duck behind to shield themselves. And bless Ryoo for involving Seon-hwa in the action in a plausible but impressive way – she’s not a trained fighter but she will Sally Hardesty her way out of there, biting, stealing guns, breaking the locks to free the other women.

Meanwhile we have the drama of the South Korean and North Korean agents attacking each other, then coming under fire from their mutual enemy and leaping into action together. It’s definitely Some John Woo Shit™ but they haven’t really bonded, it’s just a spontaneous realization of what needs to be done to save Seon-hwa.

The international intrigue here is really interesting – we have Manager Zo trying his best to help people from within a very flawed system, but he gets to see up close how much worse a system can be. North Koreans are not demonized – they are victims, some of them going great lengths to find a better life. But we see how totalitarianism empowers cruel sickos like Park Geon, and even the more complicated Chi-seong turns out to be no stranger to water torturing women. Another interesting part is when the restaurant manager is forced to inform on Seon-hwa and Chi-seong. She spews some pseudo-patriotic catchphrases about them being traitors, but she looks so ashamed of herself. Man, we all need to get out from under these motherfuckers.

HUMINT did play theatrically in South Korea a few months ago, but now it’s on Netflix. Whatever misgivings I may have about that company they do bring us some good international action (and action adjacent) movies.

Thank you once again to Charles, who always recommends the good shit to me.