Writer: Cinnamon Lion

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Watch this if you liked: "Drug War"

The Good, the Bad and the Believer:

Despite this being a remake of Johnnie To's "Drug War", no prior watching is needed, especially because the remake doesn't exactly follow the original's trajectory when it comes to the plot.

Right off the bat, the remake sets itself apart from the original by establishing contact between the police and the drug dealers in a different way, that is by making the drug dealers go to the former instead of the other way around.

Cho Jin-woong stars as Won-ho, an investigator hell-bent on taking down the mysterious and elusive Mr. Lee. He gets his best bet to tackle the drug kingpin when Seo Young-rak (Ryu Jun-yeol), a lowly member of the gang and one of the survivors from the factory explosion presumably set off by Mr. Lee, agrees to help him.

Won-ho pretends to be a drug dealer to get his chance to meet Mr. Lee himself. This requires him to first meet Jin Ha-rim (Kim Joo-hyuk in his last movie role - another movie of his was also posthumously released this year, "Heung-boo: The Revolutionist") and study the gangster closely so that he can pretend to be Jin for his meeting later with one of Mr. Lee's henchmen, Seon-chang.

The copycat scene proves to be a rib-tickler as there's just something funny about watching a law-abiding police officer perfectly pulling off copying a ruthless gangster he's just met. A minor hiccup in their plan also leads to Won-ho unintentionally re-enacting Jin's introduction to him earlier almost step-by-step, eliciting much laughter from the audience.

Korean movies never fail to impress with their stellar cast. Cha Seung-won makes an appearance as Brian, a twisted religious man who is an outcast in his own wealthy family. Kim Joo-hyuk played Jin so convincingly, you'd be forgiven to think he really was a crazed but powerful junkie in real life.

Even supporting characters don't lose to the main cast in terms of acting credibility. In this movie, Kim Dong-young and Lee Joo-young shine as the hearing-impaired siblings, Dong-yeong and Joo-yeong. Their inability to speak does not limit their ability to tease each other and exchange crude remarks using only sign language. Rak is not excluded from their friendly banter, he has a special bond with the siblings because the young man understands how it's like to live untethered to the normal daily undertakings that others are wont to take granted for.

As intense as the movie is, there are funny moments slipped in here and there so audiences are given breathing room occasionally, amidst all the shooting and bombing and fighting that can be quite dizzying if released in full force without any lighter moments as intermission.

Be warned that there will be unexpected deaths so don't get too attached to any character, be it good or bad, is what we're saying.


Trivia:

• The movie is dedicated to the late Kim Joo-hyuk, who passed away after a fatal accident last year.

• There is a brief nudity shot in the movie, of Jin Seo-yeon as Bo-ryeong, who flashed Rak to prove that she did not have a "model's body".


Cinema Online, 05 July 2018