The Drug King

GLOBAL POLITICAL REALITY

A solid but overly familiar true-life crime drama from Inside Men director Woo Min-ho.

WITH THE MIXTURE OF KOREAN HUMOR WITH BEAUTIFUL MUSIC.

ENJOY.

Watch this for Song Kang Ho in a meaty role. Endearing till the end. His character is funny and not bad like Escobar. Not a wanton killer. Interesting to see a Narcos biopic of a Korean drug lord.

Though obviously ship would be more fitting, but that other movie I was riffing off is called Train to Busan, so ... anyway, just a small joke in the summary line, hope you don't mind. The movie itself has Kang-Ho Song in the lead and if you are as bad as I am in remembering names at times, you might not immediately know who that is, but if you've watched more than 1 Korean movie, it is more than likely you've seen him.

Netflix has gotten into the producing movies market and not a minute too late if you think about Disney shortly coming up with their own streaming service. And with content like this Netflix might have a chance against other giants. This is a straight up crime story with really good acting and the comedy you might already know from other movies. Violence is also there and quite something, so also not for the squeamish ... A good movie with a really good cast then

Better than Scarface because it it is part dark comedy part blood and guts thriller. If you watch a lot of Korean movies you will get the style a lot sooner. The tension between Japanese gangsters is as much political as it is territorial. The movie straddles the Yushin (4th Republic) and 5th Republic eras including the assassination of Park chung-Hee. I watched on Netflix and it kept me engaged throughout. So good I will watch again very soon.

Your enjoyment of this movie will undoubtedly depend on your existing familiarity with Korean filmmaking. While I'm certainly not an expert on the subject, I do believe many of the more negative reviews come from western watchers who are less accustomed to the style and feel of Korean films.

The film takes its time to build up and wind down, but I never felt like it dragged out too long or got boring. Even the setting - 70's Korea - is exciting to get a look at and not explored, I think, in other films very much. I have absolutely no idea how well this flick represents the real Lee Doo-sam, but all the key performances felt very fitting and well acted and the cinematography is nice and does the job. I might add that I tend to analyze film pacing, and it hits all the usual turning points at the exact typical time marks.

What I think is most distinctively Asian in the filmmaking is the tone. It is a serious movie about several serious subjects with plenty of gritty scenes and emotion, but it's not afraid to let "wacky" characters act wacky. Some critics call this being tone-deaf or not making up its mind, but I don't think that is it at all. I consider it merely a refreshing cultural difference.

If you care about the setting or subject at all, watch it with an open mind and I think you'll like it enough to not feel like your time was wasted.