Dokjeon

Korean film industry these past few years continue to produce quality police crime tales. Acting, sets, locations and creative new twists continue despite that this genre is redundantly overloaded. For those who like the syndicate drug crime script w/usual dead bodies.

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.

Police detective Won-ho is tracking a drug cartel. His CI is murdered. The cartel is run by the mysterious and unseen Mr. Lee.

This is an interesting crime thriller from South Korea. It has good style. The story is not that inventive. Seo Young Rak could be made into a comic relief character. It's a movie with the bones of a great crime thriller but it doesn't fill out completely. I like the cult idea but it could be a bigger cult idea. It's good but it's trying to be great.

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?

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.