Yaksha: Ruthless Operations

Yaksha: Ruthless Operations (야차, 2022) is a South Korean spy thriller you can watch online on iFILM, directed by Na Hyeon. Sol Kyung-gu and Park Hae-su star in a film Netflix released to its global platform, where it pulled significant viewership numbers in its opening weeks.

The setting is Shenyang, a Chinese border city where foreign intelligence operatives from half a dozen countries run their networks with barely concealed contempt for each other. The man everyone calls Yaksha leads South Korea's covert overseas unit there — named after a human-devouring spirit from Buddhist mythology, and the name fits. A young Seoul prosecutor arrives to investigate his methods, expecting to find a rogue agent who needs reining in. What he finds instead is an active operation to locate a vanished North Korean official, with players from multiple governments who all have reasons to make sure it fails.

Park Hae-su plays it almost entirely internal — none of the volatility from Squid Game. The action sequences are brutal and shot without flourish. Stream Yaksha: Ruthless Operations (2022) online on iFILM.