The fire fighting sequences--and there are plenty--are mostly very suspenseful and exciting to watch; though we feel some of the huge explosions in the film are a bit lacking. The arsonist also has some exceptionally devious--if implausible--tricks up his sleeve, which make for fun viewing. What really slows this film down, however, are the tedious, psuedo-dramatic sub-plots. They aren't significant enough to completely bog down the film, but they're always there underneath the surface; and they are too confusing to fully relate to. For example, a fire fighter crying (yelping, actually) about the death of a friend is touching, but comes off as annoying and whiny here. Another weak point: we felt the arsonist's motivations were much too vague to allow us to really stay very hooked into what he was doing at any given time. And the female investigator character was completely superfluous and seemed ridiculously incompetent throughout the film--try to count how many times someone jumps on top of her to protect her, maybe she should just stay home...

All in all, the film was visually a delight, and offered some very memorable action sequences. One of the joys of Korean cinema is that the filmmakers clearly care about what they're doing--they're not just Wong Jing-ing it, "phoning in" another crass, formulaic romantic comedy. This film was made by people who put forth their best effort and attempted to produce a quality product; and that shines through. We definitely recommend this film to fire-fighting and action aficionados, but we still feel that the film is a bit tedious at times and the characters don't seem sufficiently thought-out.