Just in time for Mother's Day, Here is my summary (read: SPOILERS) of Secretly Greatly or Covertly or Eunmilhage Widaehage or...

If you are interested, I watched an english subbed verson of the movie here. But please use caution before clicking the link, as I can not guarantee the safety of this website.

Just a little background: This movie was recommended to me by Isadora_Quagmire so I could spend more time basking in the wonder that is Kim SooHyun. But I was delighted to learn that my favorite cast member from To The Beautiful You would be playing a lead role.

Lee HyunWoo...my heart beats so fast for you and though I started TTBY for Minho, you are the one that captured my attention so this is a real treat for me.

Also fun fact: This movie is based on a 2010 webtoon called Covertness. It has some adorable art so if you like comics you may want to check it out on iTunes.

So here is the wikipedia summary:

Secretly Greatly is a 2013 South Korean action comedy-drama film starring Kim Soo-hyun, Park Ki-woong, and Lee Hyun-woo, who play North Korean spies who infiltrate South Korea as a village idiot, a rock musician, and a high school student, respectively. They assimilate to small town life while awaiting their orders, until one day, due to a sudden power shift in the North, their mission turns out to be an order to commit suicide.

Right off the bat, I will tell you that the first few minutes in were hard to watch. Kim SooHyun plays a North Korean soldier that is assigned the task of village idiot and his look as the idiot reminds me a lot of his role as Sam in Dream High (especially the hair). But that is where comparison ends.

Immediately you learn that his bubbling idiot guise is all a ruse and at his core,  Bang Dong Gu is a lethal weapon that kind of gives me young Bruce Lee feels.

Are you feeling it?

Anyhow, things are pretty ho-hum (ting in the streets and being bullied by kids) until another operative moves into the neighborhood, his frenemy Kim MinSu (played by Park KiWoong who irl just started his enlistment).

Feelling a little insecure, you can see that Bang Dong Gu struggles with feelings of alienationon from both the North Korean and South Korean sides of his world. Then we are confronted with a series of mysterious deaths following the demise of Kim Jong-il in the North and a mounting crisis with North Korean operatives. During a rather sad scene between Dong Gu and his mentor Sang Go, we learn that after years of being undercover, Sang Go has been asked to return to the North after his family was caught trying to escape to China. Broken and angry, he begs for a gun to avenge them but Dong Gu, still believing in the Republic, denies him that favor. Still, you can tell that the incident haunts him and so begins his doubts about the validity of his mission. But before he can start getting too sentimental, another assassin from the North comes to remind him just who he serves.

OH NOES!!!

Finding the reminder a bit unsettling, Dong Gu chases the hired gun but loses him in the maze of Seoul. Still, he has his suspicions and after a back and forth with Minsu, he recognizes the title he was called by the killer and knows it is another much younger operative he befriended during his training days in the North.

Lee Hai-Jin (Lee HyunWoo!) is introduced to the story.

He is undercover as a high schooler and their reintroduction in their undercover roles is so awkward because from the look of things, Hai-Jin is kind of a fangirl for Dong Gu and I think it pains him to see his idol reduced to idiot status and Dong Gu feels the shame too.

Look at that baby. Someone is in lurve.

But soon Hai-Jin is able to see the delicate ecosystem that Dong Gu has been a part of for the last 2 years and I think a part of him wants to protect anything that is important to his hyung because someone has still got a crush.

The North Koreans for some reason decide that in the name of peace they are going to order the suicide of all of the undercover agents. Of course this is a complicated matter since one of the agents is the commander's son (MinSu), but things like this never really make sense. Cut to a confrontation between the three leads and a question of loyalty.  Even though they have been nothing but loyal to the Republic, their lives mean nothing to the higher ups and at the end of the day, their only loyalty is to the people they love which in this case sometimes mean each other. Before anymore suicides can be carried out, South Korean agents arrest Hai-Jin.

Meanwhile, the squad leader from the North has gone South to finish off any agents that haven't completed the final mission. Knowing that the end is near, Dong Gu sets about getting his affairs in order and giving sage advice to the people he's been studying for the last 2 years. Now cleaned up and ready for war, he is alerted about the arrival of the Northern commander so Dong Gu and MinSu have got to start making plans now!

Held captive by the South Koreans, Hai-Jin is concerned about one thing and one thing only, his Captain. He agrees to aid the South as long as he can get to his baby, I mean Captain.

So the North Korean commander corners Dong Gu and gives him one last chance to kill himself but Dong Gu just wants to know about his mother and they won't even give him that small comfort..so let the whoop begin!

Two of the bully kids wander into the fray and soon there are car chases and crashes from all sides. Dong Gu is wounded but manages to get the kids to safety before he and MinSu can make it to the safehouse for their weapons. Dong Gu had enlisted the help of Sang Go, but that help turns out to be a double-cross and the horrible truth comes out~Dong Gu's mother was executed when the order went out for the suicides. Broken by the betrayal, Dong Gu starts to give up but MinSu won't let him and they avoid the snipers to escape to the top floor.  As you can guess, it's about to go down!

That's the look of a man with nothing to lose.

Hai-Jin has escaped from custody and murdered the snipers but he is still on the lookout for his Captain. The commander of the North has made his way into the safehouse and decided that everyone should die (bombs and suicide/murder gunshots all over the place). Up on the rooftop, MinSu and Dong Gu have a little heart to heart and MinSu finds out he actually passed the auditions for a talent company so he really could become the rock star his cover required him to be. Isn't it ironic, dontcha think (5 points to the house that guesses where that came from)?

Awww, you did it!

But before he can entertain thoughts of stardom, here comes the North and one of the soldiers decides to belittle MinSu by calling him a bastard, his mother a , and basically likening her to a farm animal. Needless to say, that was not going to be said without a response. So in what is already a hopeless situation, MinSu kicks his , gets stabbed and then PULLS THE KNIFE OUT OF HIS BACK AND MAKES THE MAN SLIT HIS OWN THROAT!

Too gangsta for you!

Dong Gu and the Northern commander face off and it is looking bad for our lead here. In fact, he is almost executed but who comes to his rescue?

Damn right. He is not about to let his buddy down and he shoots the commander before he can shoot Dong Gu. Still the commander pleads his case for them to just all kill themselves and take the honorable way out. Well MinSu says " You" to honor death and pushes he and the commander off the side of the building...along with the live grenade he was about to set off. It is obviously the end for MinSu, but I like to think of him in happier times.

Speaking of happier times. the South is ready to close in on Dong Gu and Hai-Jin and Hai-Jin tries to by Dong Gu some time to escape. But something in his jacket gives him pause and he realizes that the only life he would want to go back to is the life he never thought he wanted, the mother he never knew he had and the love he didn't recognize until it was too late.

Sobbing over his loss, we see the villagers as they reflect on their friend and we know that Dong Gu will truly be missed. But sadly there was only one person that remained to love Hai-Jin and when South Korean police start shooting it is that person that cradles him in his arms.

And we are left only with love...

Guise! Even though I just told you the whole movie, this is still a film worth watching yourselves. There are a lot of subtle things that I don't go into here and a lot of side story lines worth watching for. But more than that, you get an opportunity to see why Kim SooHyun is the new master of Kdrama. This is a multi-layered performance that goes in far more directions that you would think at first watch. And his cast members were right there with him, giving star making turns themselves. So if you are looking for a great way to break your heart in 2 hours, this is the movie for you! Thank you for reading and please leave suggestions for any other films I should check out. Thanks and take care!