Good News

There is a specific kind of audacity required to take a terrifying 1970s hijacking and turn it into a high-stakes shell game involving fake airports and forced hospitality. If you’re familiar with the "Yodogo Incident"—where members of the Japanese Communist League-Red Army Faction seized a flight to Pyongyang—you know the real story is already stranger than fiction. But in Good News, director Byun Sung-hyun decides that reality was merely a rough draft. He’s crafted a film that feels like basically 'Argo' if Ben Affleck had a sense of humor and a better tailor.

I watched this on a rainy Tuesday while my radiator was making a rhythmic clanking sound that, for the first forty minutes, I genuinely thought was part of the film’s experimental percussion score. It actually added a layer of mechanical anxiety that I’m now convinced every thriller needs. When the radiator finally went quiet, I realized I was leaning so far forward in my chair that I was nearly touching the screen. That’s the Byun Sung-hyun effect; he doesn't just tell a story; he traps you in a beautifully composed, hyper-saturated pressure cooker.

The Architect of the Big Lie

At the center of this madness is Sul Kyung-gu, playing a character known only as "Nobody." This is his fourth outing with Byun (following The Merciless, Kingmaker, and Kill Boksoon), and their shorthand is evident in every frame. Sul Kyung-gu has reached a point in his career where he can command a room simply by adjusting his glasses. He plays the mastermind with a chilling, comedic detachment—a man tasked with the impossible: convincing a group of armed radicals that a hastily repurposed landing strip in South Korea is actually the welcoming embrace of North Korea.

The film excels when it leans into the absurdity of this "theatrical" production. We see the South Korean government scrambling to replace signs, hide Western advertisements, and coach "actors" to greet the hijackers with the appropriate revolutionary fervor. It’s a comedy of errors where the punchline is a potential international incident. Byun uses the era's aesthetic—all mustard yellows, deep teals, and heavy cigarette smoke—to create a world that feels both historical and slightly surreal. It captures that 2020s trend of "vibrant nostalgia" where the past looks better than the present ever did.

A High-Altitude Ensemble

While Sul provides the anchor, the film’s energy comes from the friction within the ensemble. Hong Kyung is a revelation as Seo Go-myung, the young man caught in the middle of this geopolitical masquerade. He brings a frantic, twitchy energy that serves as the perfect foil to Sul’s stoicism. Then there’s Ryoo Seung-bum, whose return to the screen here is nothing short of electric. He plays Park Sang-hyeon with a chaotic unpredictability that makes you wonder if he’s following the script or just vibing on the day. Ryoo Seung-bum has always been South Korea’s secret weapon for "charming sociopaths," and he doesn't disappoint here.

On the Japanese side of the cockpit, Takayuki Yamada and Kippei Shiina bring a grounded intensity that keeps the film from floating off into pure farce. The tension between the hijackers and the "Nobody" character is played like a high-stakes poker game where half the players are bluffing about which country they’re even in. Kim Seung-o also pops up as Maeda, adding his signature brand of intense supporting-character spice that Byun fans have come to expect.

Truth in the Age of "Good News"

Released in an era where we are constantly questioning the validity of the information on our screens, Good News feels incredibly timely. Though it’s set in 1970, its heart beats for 2025. It’s a film about the power of the narrative—how if you build a convincing enough stage, people will believe whatever lie you tell them. It avoids the trap of being a "history lesson" and instead functions as a meta-commentary on the art of deception. The "zany scheme" isn't just a plot point; it's a reflection of our current obsession with curated realities and "fake news."

The production value is top-tier Star Platinum fare. The cinematography by Cho Hyoung-rae utilizes the claustrophobia of the plane cabin and the vast, empty loneliness of the fake airfield to great effect. There’s a sequence involving a midnight paint job on a runway that is edited with such rhythmic precision by Byun and his team that it felt more like a dance number than a military operation.

There’s been some chatter on social media about whether it’s "too soon" or "too lighthearted" to tackle an event involving real-world terrorism with such a comedic lens. My take? If we can't laugh at the sheer stupidity of international borders, what's the point of having a cinema ticket? The film doesn't disrespect the gravity of the hijacking; it mocks the systems that allowed it to become a theater of the absurd.

Good News is a sharp, stylish, and deeply cynical joyride that confirms Byun Sung-hyun is one of the most exciting directors working in the streaming era. It manages to be a thriller that actually thrills and a comedy that actually lands its jokes—a rare feat in a landscape often cluttered with films that try to be everything and end up being nothing. It’s a beautifully shot lie that I’d happily watch again just to see the cracks in the paint. Seek it out on Netflix, but maybe turn your radiator off first.