Believer

When a baleful underling survives an assassination plot, and the police accept his help to crack the drug gang's mysterious Mr Big (or Mr Lee) we know we will not be witnessing anything original.

I always try and catch Korean films in a festival, and I'm glad I caught this one. Borrowing heavily from style over substance hits such as Diva, through Usual Suspects and Infernal Affairs, it keeps a Mission Impossible tempo but in the end goes for a mystery ending. The hyper violence isn't quite up to 11 but is fairly unrelenting.

While definitely a great film, with notable sound and cinematography, it doesn't quite hit the heights of some other Korean action films due to some limited character development and imprecise editing. And the editing has filed away a sometimes visible consistent heart.

The first half of the movie was fast paced and intense, and I enjoyed it a lot more than the second half. The villains were kind of mediocre in the sense that they didn't feel fully fleshed out. The bad guys were like bad guys just for the sake of being the bad guys, if you know what I mean.

I think it was intriguing how the plot revolved around Lee, this drug mastermind whose identity was completely unknown to everyone but honestly I figured it out pretty early on. And when it was finally revealed in the end, I was like okay? But I still don't understand his motives. That ending though.. I know there's a sequel and I'm pretty sure Lee died in the end of this movie so I'm confused why there was a need for a sequel at all? I might consider watching the sequel just for Han Hyo Joo though.

I expected a bit more from this action flick from South Korea, but I have to admit that I also lost interest in films from Asia, I don't know why...If I watch again some of them that I have already in my library, that's OK. But this one is a bit confused in a plot very slow to begin. I was getting bored several times during this movie. The ending is totally opened, which I dislike very much. So, I don't know if I will purchse the sequel of this one. I don't think so. But don't get influenced by my comment if you are fans of this kind of action flicks. I only gave my opinion and feeling. That's all.

NC17

It is supposedly a thriller -gory at times- and an action movie but to me it is more of a black comedy.. a trip with an ?ambiguous art house movie ending all in one coherent package! What an achievement.

A cop desperate to find a vicious drug lord gets help from an underling .. or is it the other way around? Fast paced with elements that seemed to repeat with slower but no less thrilling parts set in beautiful scenery. The photography is stupendous and the music is quite good. Most importantly though, lot of the acting is amazing and quite credible however outlandish the behavior required is.

Reviewers are too hang up on the original movie that inspired this remake - ignore them. Every movie borrows more or less from others but the whole package is quite original.

Maybe the South Koreans really have the knack - they sure do know how to create some realistic, gritty thrillers. I've seen quite a few over the past couple of years and this one is just as good as a lot of the others.

Coming into "Believer," I actually had a high expectation that it would deliver as well as other Chinese, Malaysian or Japanese thrillers. It definitely doesn't fail. A lot of intense scenes and dramatic moments make for a twisty joyride in this film. The acting, writing and cinematography was top notch, too. I love those scenes of their winter hinterlands - pure eye candy. Also, what other movie recently has a Chinese Scarface?