The Drug King

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

The story is pretty much the same as Scarface, so it's impossible to not draw a comparison. If you take away the legendary cultural status the movie Scarface has in the "West" and just put the two side by side, I would say this one's actually almost as good. What I liked even more in this film, is that it highlights a little bit more the detrimental effects of drug dealing on the community as a whole, instead of just glorifying it Hollywood style. Certainly worth a watch.

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.

Long, scrappy, boring, almost like Korean version of SCARFACE (1983) but much less "exciting."

The main, actually only, selling point of THE DRUG KING (2018) is Song Kang Ho. This movie is in effect his one man show. It is satisfactory as always to watch he performs, anything else in TDK doesn't worth mention. Although TDK is insignificant as such, Mr Song deserves awards before his next work -- the super-hyped PARASITE (2019).

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.