Believer 2

The first movie, "Believer 2018" was quite interesting due to its suspense & plot twist. This sequel, unfortunately, was a total let-down. Not even A list stars like Cho Jin Woong, Han Hyo Joo or even veteran supporting actor Jo Han Chul could save this film.

The continuation of the storyline was lame. Han Hyo Joo just acted like a madwoman. Cho Jin Woong's character behaved like a rookie policeman, a downgrade of the heroic cop from the first film. Cha Seung Won was still the same villain as the first movie.

The characters spoke so much Mandarin but unconvincingly as the Korean accent was still obvious. There's even a guy who looks like Xi Jin Ping here.

The standout performer of this show has got to be Oh Seung Hoon, who replaced Ryu Joon Yeol as Rak. He played out the backstory of Rak well and performed as good as his predecessor. I was about to give up halfway, but Oh Seung Hoon carried the show well.

In a nutshell, don't bother watching this, unless you have too much time to kill.

The original Believer (Dokjeon) was very good. It's not flawless, but definitely worth watching. It was no surprise when it was announced that they would make another movie based on the original story. While many expected what would be a sequel, the director decided to make a "midquel." Okay, so the new movie is trying to fill in some of the events and details that make the first movie to make the entire story a more complete story. Well, the problem is that you have a different director, different actor playing one of the lead role, many of the characters that made the first move so interesting have already died, etc. Even with these obvious flaws, they had a chance to create a decent movie here. But no... This movie completely ignores some of the fundamental storylines from the first movie. There are so many plot holes that it seems the director who made the second movie did not even watch the first movie. Very, very disappointing for a movie that many fans had eagerly anticipated.

They swapped actors for two of the main characters since the first film, I watched half of this one before realising it so don't make my mistake or you'll be totally lost! The woman who plays Mr Lee's daughter is like a cartoon, totally hammy acting. No huge twists like the first film, and total lack of tension. Not even sure who I'm rooting for by the end of the film. There's a scene where three of the main characters who are all enemies are discussing their final plan together, I couldn't explain what the hell was going on even if my life depended on it! If you enjoyed the first film - leave it there, give this one a miss.

BELIEVER 2 is a follow-up to the 2018 original that carries straight on from the action of the first movie. It's been a fair few years since I saw that one so I was left understandably confused by the first fifteen minutes, but once things work out this becomes easy to follow, adopting a typical template of rival drugs gangs battling for supremacy while the cops try to arrest all of them. It's vividly violent and gritty throughout, with visceral action dominating in the form of mass shootings and brutal executions. The usual quality you expect from Korean cinema is present and correct here, and if it falls short of brilliance, then it's still an undeniably involving production.

I'm not going to pretend that I know how the film industry works, but I was seriously let down by this movie. I really liked and enjoyed the first one, Believer 2018, and the fact that it kept me guessing for practically the whole movie was awesome, but writers of Believer 2 took that and threw it down the toilet and replaced it with brainless action scenes and rewrote plot lines and story to almost completely diminish the first film.

The change of actors doesn't bother me so much because I understand that due to other obligations and schedules, sometimes the same actor can't return to play the role. It's upsetting but it can be forgiven. I feel the actors and director did well with what they were given. I could be wrong, because like I said, I don't know much about the industry, but I don't think the director has much say in how the script is written. So they did a good job with what was handed to them. I blame the writers and whoever greenlighted this to move forward and be produced, for totally ruining a great story. It's not worth watching, in my opinion, unless you really want to be disappointed.