Shiri is a 1999 South Korean action spy film, written and directed by Kang Je-gyu. It was the first Hollywood-style big-budget blockbuster to be produced in the new Korean film industry (i.e. after Korea's major economic boom in the late 1990s). Created as a deliberate homage to the "high-octane" action film made popular by Hollywood through the 1980s, it also contained a story that draws on strong Korean national sentiment to fuel its drama. Much of the film's visual style is shared with that of Asian action cinema, particularly Hong Kong action cinema such as John Woo, Tsui Hark, Ringo Lam, and the relentless pace of the second unit directors, like Vic Armstrong and Guy Hamilton, in the James Bond films.

Plot

In September 1992, an elite group of North Korean soldiers are put through a brutal training regime. Under the auspices of their commander, Park Mu-young (Choi Min-sik), they will be sent into South Korea as sleeper agents, to be reactivated at some later date. The most promising of the group is Lee Bang-hee, a female sniper who assassinates several key South Korean figures over the next six years.