REAWAKENED MAN (부활남: 더 레드) (2026)

Genre: Action/Comedy
Director: Baik
Cast: Koo Kyo-hwan, Shin Seung-ho, Kang Ki-young, Kim Sia
Runtime: 1 hr 41 mins
Rating: NC16 (Violence & Some Coarse Language)
Released By: Golden Village
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 1 October 2026

Synopsis: Despite unwavering support from his best friend Young-ha (KANG Ki-young) and the unwavering support of his younger sister Ye-rin (KIM Sia), job seeker SEOK Hwan (KOO Kyo-hwan) just can’t seem to land a job, repeatedly failing interviews. One night, after yet another disastrous interview, he returns home only to be attacked by a group of strangers and killed. But 72 hours after his death, SEOK Hwan suddenly opens his eyes as if nothing happened. He soon discovers that he possesses a special ability: no matter how many times he dies, he comes back to life. But there’s little time to process his extraordinary new power before a mysterious figure known as Black (SHIN Seung-ho), who has discovered Hwan’s existence, begins hunting him down. Yet with each resurrection, SEOK Hwan grows stronger, unleashing powers beyond anything he could have imagined! 

Movie Review:

There are movies that make you think while entertaining you, and there are movies that are made purely for entertainment. Reawakened Man belongs to the latter. It is a dumb, mindless action comedy that lets you escape from reality for an efficient 100 minutes.

Based on a webtoon series, our protagonist Seok Hwan (Koo Kyo-hwan) is a man in his early 30s who can’t seem to land a proper job. The good thing is that he has the unwavering support of his best friend Young-ha (Kang Ki-young), his uncle and his foul-mouthed sister Ye-rin (Kim Sia). That is, until some mercenaries mysteriously turn up at his home and kidnap his uncle. Seok Hwan, on the other hand, is killed and his body is dumped down a hill.

Amazingly, Seok Hwan comes back to life 72 hours later. He is practically invincible in a Wolverine kind of way. Every time he dies and returns, he becomes stronger. And right now, he is being pursued by a person named Black (Shin Seung-ho), who possesses his own superpower- mind control, somewhat like Jean Grey.

So how do you kill and capture a person who doesn’t die and possesses immense power? Welcome to Reawakened Man, a Made-in-Korea superhero movie that occasionally feels like a Marvel outing made on a much smaller scale.

There is, of course, a backstory behind Black and Seok Hwan, who is dubbed Red, as well as another character named Blue. There is also the involvement of a major evil biotech company that operates from a gigantic, Star Destroyer-like warship in the middle of the ocean. The writing isn’t exactly great or mind-blowing. In fact, it seriously lacks creativity. To be frank, it feels like a cut-and-paste assignment assembled from some of the greatest Hollywood sci-fi movies and Western superhero comics.

Yet the Koreans know how to make an entertaining commercial movie, much like what Hong Kong filmmakers did back in the 80s. So, in order to make up for the shortcomings of the limited screenplay, Reawakened Man offers a series of madcap chases and action sequences to keep the audience entertained. Not to mention the impeccable comic timing of Kang Ki-young, who plays Red’s loyal buddy.

Now, if you are looking for heavy, brutal hand-to-hand fights between Black and Red, this is not that kind of movie. Sure, as mentioned earlier, the action sequences are aplenty, but most of them are a combination of silly CGI doubles, superhero antics, characters jumping through the air and a whole lot of miscellaneous superpowers. Even the prolonged car chases are obviously CGI-heavy.

Clearly, this is a sci-fi action comedy that you shouldn’t take too seriously. It stays true to its source material as a webtoon, even though you might not find satisfying answers to all the talk about saving humanity and whatnot.

Still, Koo Kyo-hwan and Kang Ki-young make for a fun pairing, while Shin Seung-ho does a serviceable job as the antagonist. Reawakened Man may not offer anything particularly fresh, but at least it knows exactly what it wants to be -a silly superhero-like movie whose only real purpose is to entertain, and nothing more.

Movie Rating:

(A cut-and-paste superhero comedy that may lack originality but delivers enough dumb fun to pass the time)

Review by Linus Tee