The real heart of this film is not the innovatively conceived and title-giving nature of the bombs invented by the villain, but the hard-hitting backstory. This story shows - this "villain" named Jeon Tae-seong (Lee Jong-suk) is not a villain at all. He is a man who wanted to be a hero in the most extreme situation imaginable, who wanted to trade his life for that of his brother. Down there, at the bottom of the sea, in a submarine for whose crew salvation will come so late that half the men will sacrifice themselves for the other half. From the hand of their commander Kang Do-young (Kim Rae-won) they pull strings, draw lots to see who gets to live and who has to die. Jeon Tae-seong draws life, his brother draws death... and Tae-seong is not allowed to change places with him. Hence his despair, his urge for retribution, especially since the truth about what happened down there has never come to light. So what happens above, in the daylight of action, gets its meaning from what literally as well as symbolically lies hidden in the deep.... and what takes one's breath away through the incredibly intense acting of Lee Jong-suk. When this actor portrays the despair of a man who has to send his brother to his death, it goes so deep, as if he were losing a human being just in reality. How he goes to the limit, how he cries and screams and his world collapses, that is incomparable, that is no longer a representation, but a reality that transports itself directly into the soul of the viewer. Personally, it makes me think of the way Bryan Garris screams, vocalist for Knocked Loose, arguably the most intense hardcore band of our day. Others just roar, like attackers, like men about to come to blows. Garris, on the other hand, screams from the wounded soul of someone who has already crossed the edge of despair. Lee Jong-suk plays the same way, it goes through the marrow. In one scene he even plays within the acting, in the chair of a military psychologist. One minute he is crying hopelessly, and in a split second his face changes to that of a bitter, cynical man asking if this was a good job now. Lee Jong-suk's portrayal of Jeon Tae-seong thus gives weight to the background story about a merciless triage and gives the "villain" a comprehensible reason for his urge for revenge and the step across borders after which there is no turning back. One of the best actors of our time, worldwide.
Review of Decibel
