Brief Story Line
When his beloved brother Seok-tae (Park Jong-hwan - Confidential Assignment 2: International, Taxi Driver 2 TV series etc) was found dead, Min-Tae (Ha Jung-woo - Hijack 1971, Take Point etc), a former convict decided to search for the truth. His first instinct was to find out what happened from Seok-tae's boss, gang leader Chang-mo (Jung Man-sik - I, The Executioner, Rampant etc). During his investigation, Min-tae also learnt that his brother's girlfriend Moo-young (Yoo Da-in - The Cave, Memorials TV series etc) was missing and started to look for her.
Meanwhile the police detective Park (Heo Sung-tae - Crash TV series, The Boys etc) tasked to investigate on Seok-tae's death found that a novel titled Nocturnal written by successful novelist Ho-ryeong (Kim Nam-gil - Emergency Declaration, The Fiery Priest TV series etc) had some similarities to the case. Ho-ryeong who was informed about this, wanted to find Moo-young as well.
So what actually happened to Seok-tae? You could find out in this movie.
End of Brief Story Line
To be honest, my wife and I were not aware what this movie was all about. I myself only saw it was categorized as action thriller which was usually a genre that we both liked. So we started seeing the film with open mind and for first few minutes we were just sitting back and enjoy the ride. However, after some time, we both began to feel that it was moving at a slow pace. And it got worse for me as I felt so sleepy that I dozed off few times. I only managed to "sober" up after half hour when there was a rather interesting fight scene. I think it was due to unclarity where the movie was heading during that early part but luckily after that it was a bit clearer and I was able to better concentrate. Although my wife was the one who dozed off once or twice then.
The second half hour or so was pretty exciting as the investigation by Min-tae got further and the part where what actually happened was revealed was quite good. There was a bit of surprise that I did not thought although my wife did have her suspicion. Unfortunately the conclusion was not satisfying as there were few things that my wife and I felt unresolved, especially the final ending. Even if it had some nice action scenes but its rather open ending was upsetting to us. Another thing that disappointed me was Kim Nam-gil did not get the chance to show off his fighting skills (I was rather hoping that there would be fights between him and Ha Jung-woo).
During opening and closing credits (which did not have any mid or post end credit scene), I did not see anything this movie was based on. So it was based on the mind of Kim Jin-hwang as the writer and also the director whose prior experience was directing the highly rated 2015 movie The Boys Who Cried Wolf. Sadly after that film, it did not seem he was able to replicate his success, including in this movie. Though it did make the number one South Korean Box Office in its first week of release, but I think it is not going to be a huge success commercially and critically. My wife and I both felt that the idea for the plot was quite OK, unfortunately the execution was not good enough at least for us.
The cast itself was not bad. Ha Jung-woo showed some convincing characterization as a man who would do anything for his brother. Kim Nam-gil's character was so-so while Yoo Da-in did not have that much screen time. In addition to the names I mentioned above, there were also some support characters like Byung-gyu (Im Seong-jae - Anchor, Gangnam B-Side TV series etc) who drove Min-tae around, Detective Park's new partner Min (Lee Seol - The Cursed: Dead Man's Prey, D.P TV series etc) and few others, including one familiar face for me, Seo Hyun-woo (A Shop for Killers TV series, My Name is Loh Kiwan etc) as Detective Son.
Overall I did not have that great time seeing this movie. The too slow-pace and unclarity of what it was trying to tell in the earlier part was not enjoyable for us. Though it got better later, but the final moment with few loose ends were not satisfying. We could understand the creativity of having open end, but having more than one in a movie felt a bit too much, especially the part involving Ro-hyeong's role. So if you are looking for a good neo-noir mystery film (as categorized by certain websites) or an entertaining action thriller, I think this would not really satisfy your wish. Btw, the movie is no longer playing in Indonesian cinemas today, so even if you are interested to give it a try, you will have to wait for it to be available on streaming services.
Mike's movie moments rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars
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