An adrenaline shot to the heart with world class filmmaking in service to an excellent high concept and two actors who set the screeen on fire.
Kim Mu-yeol plays the hottest, hot shot arrogant, young cop you have ever seen. Johnny Utah with real swagger.
Ma Dong-seok (Credited as Don Lee in Eternals) plays the smoothest, toughest gangster in Korea.
After the gangster is attacked by a serial killer the two men team up (kinda) to catch him.
First of all, what a great high concept right? You know someone in Hollywood is remaking this right now.
Second, there was about a half dozen ways to play this kind of movie and writer/director Lee Won-tae picks a perfect lane for it. It’s funny, but not too much, action packed and kinda serious when it needs to be.
There are no scenes of sad detectives ruminating over the darkness in their souls. Leave that stuff to Se7en and Silence of the Lambs.
This movie takes place in glorious over the top movie land where the Police Lt. is constantly screaming at his subordinates, the gangster is the toughest guy (who looks amazing in sunglasses) you have ever met, and the serial killer is an insane weasel who just keeps slipping away.
It’s not parody and it’s not comedy (although it is funny sometimes) it’s just set in a world that is more hyper realized than our boring dumb reality.
Kill Bill is the movie the people in Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction go watch when they go to the movies. It’s the movie world Hot Fuzz is lovingly making fun of.
It’s a world of this flick where two guys can take on a dozen gangsters with knives and bats and the two guys win. Why do they win?
Cause their cause is righteous and the script calls for it my dude.
I thought this thing looked great for most of it but a car chase near the end soured me a bit. I’ve never been one of those everything should be shot on film guys, but that car chase, at least, made me yearn for the old days.
However, most of it is a high neon digital sheen that is perfect for this kind of cops and crooks flick.
Also, whoever picked out the music for this is a champ.
The movie had the best set up for its main characters I have seen in a while. The serial killer does his thing, of course. But the minute the cop walks into the movie and through some lowlifes you know you are in good hands.
The same goes for the intro for The Gangster who is presented in a scene that tells you everything you need to know in seconds and with a visual pop.
One of my favorite parts of the Gangster story is that as the leader he is constantly being frustrated by subordinates who either too fiercely want to protect him or those who want to antagonize him in hopes of ultimately replacing him.
Ma Dong-seok gives his Eternals co-star Brian Tyree-Henry a run for his money for best ‘I am so annoyed with these idiots’ face in the business.
There is solid work among the other actors and actresses as well and the movie has just enough narrative twists to keep the fun train (to steal a phrase from the great screenwriter John Rogers) running.
The final 20 minutes requests that you go with it but there is a moment where I knew how it was going to end a short while before the ending came.
But, and this is vital, it doesn’t matter that I guessed the final bit because I enjoyed every second of it.
Readers, when we got to that ending, I cheered.
Dark Highways 
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