Chul-joong is a cop on the edge: under suspicion of corruption, continually reprimanded for under-hand and over-zealous tactics and frankly very difficult to get on with, he's also saddled with a young family to which he is the sole parent (his wife died), and his partner has just blown his brains out when I.A. move in to investigate some of their dodgy cases. Chul-joong is a wild-card: a former boxer, he likes to beat up, slap and humiliate all those who are unlucky enough to cross him, or just cross his path. AND he's just got a new superior who won't take any nonsense or dirty-dealing from his troop, and also likes to punch those who deviate from his view of policemen. Oh, and he's having difficulty moving a cache of drugs he's pilfered, but he badly needs to because his finances are screwed. His life's a bit of a mess...
Just when you think things couldn't get any worse, he has a nasty, night-time confrontation with a madman. When Chul-joong jumps out of a police van in the pouring rain, desperately searching for a place to take a dump, he bumps into dark assassin who slashes his face. Miffed, Chul-joong resolves to catch the SOB and make him pay. But that's easier said than done. I don't think this is really a spoiler, but if you want to approach the movie with much knowledge of the plot, stop reading here. It's made clear very early on who the assailant was: Cho Gyoo-hwan, an ostensibly sensible, affluent and domesticated businessman with a family and steady job - plus a big bank-balance and cushy life. And when Gyoo-hwan sliced Chul-joong, he did so just after having murdered his parents, in a rage after they threatened to withdraw some funding. Gyoo-hwan may look straight, but in reality he's a shifty degenerate, jerking off in the shower as he fantasises over kinky sex, and re-visiting the site of his monstrous parricide to gloat over his mum and dad's rotting corpses. Imagine Patrick Batemen from American Psycho, but with a family.
And thus Chul-joong and Gyoo-hwan, two unstable, violent men, go tête-à-tête, the former quickly convinced of the latter's guilt when the investigation gets going, yet lacking any hard evidence.
This Korean blockbuster was shipped abroad with great credo: a big money haul, some top stars, an established director, exciting, gory material and a great, in-you-face trailer. All of which should fit it quite nicely in the Asia Extreme category. But for all the beating, running, fighting and shouty dialogue, it's actually quite dull.
There are some strong elements. For one, it has several cohesive, continuous themes, such as a blackly-comic meditation on the class divide that pits slovenly cop against suited-businessman, and a gruesomely compelling odour: the film has stench. The film-makers continually emphasise smell: Chul-joong sweats a great deal, there's a gag when a murder weapon is tainted with excrement, the rotting bodies; all thrown into the cauldron that is Seoul in summer. This is a policier with foul BO - an original idea. There's also a tough view on the Korean economy, and thought-provoking contemplations on the role of police, and the nature of the thin blue line: when can you cross it ensure that justice is meted out? Throw in some knock-about comedy, a great rogue's gallery of cops and robbers, some frenetic, brutal fights and much head-banging, and you'd reckon you've got a great, noirish entertainment. Sadly, not quite so.
Director Woo-sook Kang's film all suffer from excessive length and at 140 minutes, Public Enemy just outstays its welcome; there's too much yelling and debate that cuts up the main story arch. Thus the climactic duel, when it comes, is overdue and even though brutal and stupidly bloody, not enough to compensate for the previous tracts of boredom. Equally disappointing is the lack of visual flair. The film has some great, textured 'scope photography, and a compelling use of ordinary locations that root the story in some kind of reality, but one the whole its too restricted to rather boringly lit offices and homes.
That said, the lead performances have a manic integrity. Kyung-gu Sol is the lead and stand-out: piling on the pounds, moustached and sweating like a pig, he's virtually unrecognisable. It's his performance and the antagonism with his rich rival that is the real motor of the movie - it's just a shame there's so much material to distract and detract from that.
It's still a sometimes amazing, brutish ride, and far more aggressive and dynamic than your regular Hollywood crime films. It's also worth seeing for the line: "No one should kill somebody for no reason." You said it!
Just when you think things couldn't get any worse, he has a nasty, night-time confrontation with a madman. When Chul-joong jumps out of a police van in the pouring rain, desperately searching for a place to take a dump, he bumps into dark assassin who slashes his face. Miffed, Chul-joong resolves to catch the SOB and make him pay. But that's easier said than done. I don't think this is really a spoiler, but if you want to approach the movie with much knowledge of the plot, stop reading here. It's made clear very early on who the assailant was: Cho Gyoo-hwan, an ostensibly sensible, affluent and domesticated businessman with a family and steady job - plus a big bank-balance and cushy life. And when Gyoo-hwan sliced Chul-joong, he did so just after having murdered his parents, in a rage after they threatened to withdraw some funding. Gyoo-hwan may look straight, but in reality he's a shifty degenerate, jerking off in the shower as he fantasises over kinky sex, and re-visiting the site of his monstrous parricide to gloat over his mum and dad's rotting corpses. Imagine Patrick Batemen from American Psycho, but with a family.
And thus Chul-joong and Gyoo-hwan, two unstable, violent men, go tête-à-tête, the former quickly convinced of the latter's guilt when the investigation gets going, yet lacking any hard evidence.
This Korean blockbuster was shipped abroad with great credo: a big money haul, some top stars, an established director, exciting, gory material and a great, in-you-face trailer. All of which should fit it quite nicely in the Asia Extreme category. But for all the beating, running, fighting and shouty dialogue, it's actually quite dull.
There are some strong elements. For one, it has several cohesive, continuous themes, such as a blackly-comic meditation on the class divide that pits slovenly cop against suited-businessman, and a gruesomely compelling odour: the film has stench. The film-makers continually emphasise smell: Chul-joong sweats a great deal, there's a gag when a murder weapon is tainted with excrement, the rotting bodies; all thrown into the cauldron that is Seoul in summer. This is a policier with foul BO - an original idea. There's also a tough view on the Korean economy, and thought-provoking contemplations on the role of police, and the nature of the thin blue line: when can you cross it ensure that justice is meted out? Throw in some knock-about comedy, a great rogue's gallery of cops and robbers, some frenetic, brutal fights and much head-banging, and you'd reckon you've got a great, noirish entertainment. Sadly, not quite so.
Director Woo-sook Kang's film all suffer from excessive length and at 140 minutes, Public Enemy just outstays its welcome; there's too much yelling and debate that cuts up the main story arch. Thus the climactic duel, when it comes, is overdue and even though brutal and stupidly bloody, not enough to compensate for the previous tracts of boredom. Equally disappointing is the lack of visual flair. The film has some great, textured 'scope photography, and a compelling use of ordinary locations that root the story in some kind of reality, but one the whole its too restricted to rather boringly lit offices and homes.
That said, the lead performances have a manic integrity. Kyung-gu Sol is the lead and stand-out: piling on the pounds, moustached and sweating like a pig, he's virtually unrecognisable. It's his performance and the antagonism with his rich rival that is the real motor of the movie - it's just a shame there's so much material to distract and detract from that.
It's still a sometimes amazing, brutish ride, and far more aggressive and dynamic than your regular Hollywood crime films. It's also worth seeing for the line: "No one should kill somebody for no reason." You said it!