No Tears for the Dead

At a party, a man quietly interacts with a little girl and leaves behind a paper bird once he walks away. He assembles his gun and proceeds to shoot an entire group of people meeting secretly. His last kill is a man named Yun-guk Ha, whose laptop he retrieves after killing him. However, feeling someone is near the door, he fires multiple bullets, only to realize he has shot the little girl with the paper bird he had left behind. The girl instantly dies, traumatizing the man, whose named is revealed to be Gon. He is a professional hitman whose friend Chaoz brings him back to his senses. Their boss orders a reluctant Gon to kill the little girl's mother Choi Mo-gyeong, a risk manager at an investment firm in South Korea who is spied on by her boss John Lee. Gon is received at Seoul airport by Department head Byun and neither of them tend to like each other. Learning that Mo-gyeong has a senile mother in a hospital, Gon manages to meet her in an elevator and records her voice secretly in his phone. While practicing shooting, he listens to Mo-gyeong's voice and with passing time, as he also breaks into her house and sees her mourn her daughter Yu-mi's loss, Gon decides to no longer kill her. On the other hand, cops approach Mo-gyeong to find out about her husband's work. Detective Park from the financial crimes task force reveals to Mo-gyeong that John Lee is a criminal whose job ranges from money laundering to drug to human trafficking. Further, he explains her husband tried to sell John's accounts to the Russian Mob but he got killed along with his daughter. Park insists on getting Mo-gyeong's help in retrieving a file John wants. Learning that Gon is taking time to kill her, the rest of his team is sent to Seoul to eliminate her.

The file is found in a pen drive with Mo-gyeong. However, Gon calls her to inform there are men coming to kill her. A corrupt cop shoots Park in exchange for money. However, he is himself killed by Byun after he is found with a pen camera. Retrieving the pen drive, John orders the death of Mo-gyeong, but Gon arrives just in the nick of time to shoot and stab the men to their death. Before Mo-gyeong can see Gon's face, the latter's team attack the house, prompting Gon to make a call telling Mo-gyeong to get to a car along with a promise to tell her what happened to his daughter. However, one of the teammates kidnaps Mo-gyeong and a wounded Gon escapes. He requests Chaoz to let Mo-gyeong go, but the latter declines. Gon then tips off the police about a bomb that goes off quickly and alerts them about another bomb. Mo-gyeong is taken to the financial building, which is soon surrounded by the cops who believe it will be bombed. Gon then takes out the two teammates one by one in a series of fights and improvised traps. On the other hand, Mo-gyeong succeeds in preventing money transfer to John Lee's account with the help of her computer. When John ignores Byun's money, the latter stabs him to death. At last, Gon battles Chaoz and both get severely wounded. Byun discovers Mo-gyeong and severely beats her up. He tries to rape her before she stabs him to death. After a conversation with Chaoz, Gon tells Mo-gyeong she needs to shoot the man coming to kill her since he is the one who killed her daughter. However, Gon himself arrives and is shot by Mo-gyeong. Chaoz also arrives, snatches the shotgun from Mo-gyeong and tries to shoot her, but a dying Gon requests not to do so. The elevator goes down with a dead Gon's hand held by Chaoz while Mo-gyeong tries to reach out to Gon via radio.

A flashback shows how Gon's mother, who abandoned him in the states and killed herself early on in the film, tells him not to cry as they would have a good life once they move to America. However, Gon continues to cry: both as a kid and an adult.

Writer-director Lee Jeong-beom interviewed special forces troops in South Korea and the United States to learn their reality and incorporate it into his screenplay.[2][8]

To prepare for his role, Jang Dong-gun underwent physical training for four months at a film action school in Seoul and combat training in the United States.[9][10][11][12]

No Tears for the Dead was released in South Korea on June 4, 2014. Despite its star director and actor, the film underperformed at the box office against Hollywood blockbusters X-Men: Days of Future Past and Edge of Tomorrow. It opened at fifth place on the box office, drawing 600,988 admissions.[13][14]

• Official website (in Korean)
• Crying Man on Facebook (in Korean)
• No Tears for the Dead at the Korean Movie Database
• No Tears for the Dead on IMDb
• No Tears for the Dead at HanCinema
• No Tears for the Dead at CJ Entertainment