Brief Story Line
Set in the year 2008, four years after the events in The Outlaws, Detective Ma Seok-do (Ma Dong-seok - Eternals, The Bad Guys: Reign of Chaos etc) and his captain Jeon (Choi Gwi-hwa - Long Live The King, Bad Guys 2 TV series etc) were assigned to Vietnam for some task. However, what started as a simple enough job turned to be something far more dangerous.
After further investigation, Detective Ma and Captain Jeon with the help from their colleagues in Korea found there was an even greater threat in the form of ruthless criminal named Kang Hae-sang (Son Sukku - My Liberation Notes TV series, Hit-and-Run Squad etc).
So how would the story conclude? You can find them all in this movie.
End of Brief Story Line
I read on the internet that this movie was sequel to the 2017 successful & well received The Outlaws. As my wife and I have not seen it yet, we searched for it online and luckily it was available via streaming. So we both watch it first on Monday and found it to be enjoyable. Anyway when we saw this movie, it started off with some violent scenes which might surprise some of the audience (especially if they have not seen the first movie yet and did not know what to expect).
Once Don Lee appeared though, the movie started to feel a bit lighter as he brought some humor and brighten the mood. In fact some of the more funnier moments were attributed to his attitude and Captain Yeon's. It seemed Choi Gwi-hwa who played the captain was given more screen time here and he did not waste it. Their dynamics were just fun to see and many times audiences were able to laugh due to their behaviors. However, every time the main villain appeared, we always felt a sense of suspense since we never knew how he would react. That could only meant Son Sukku was really convincing as the cruel, violent & scary criminal.
Aside from the names mentioned above, there were some important support cast here such as Heo Dong-won and Ha Jun reprising their roles as junior detectives Dong-gyun & Hong-seok respectively, Park Ji-young (Don't Dare to Dream TV series) as Mrs. Choi and the actor who seemed to be specially cast for humorous role Park Ji-hwan (Spiritwalker, Unstoppable etc) as Jang Isu. There were also few cameos of stars who would be known by those who loved to watch South Korean drama series/movies. While the movie itself has a duration of 106 minutes, we felt it was the perfect length as it did not feel too draggy or too brief. Btw, there was no mid or post end credit scenes here. The film was directed by Lee Sang-yong in what seemed to be only his second feature film. He replaced the position of Kang Yoon-sung but their style seemed to be quite similar.
During the whole movie, the thing that made us really excited was the built up to the climax. The interesting part would definitely be the contrasting effect both lead actors delivered. The good guy was shown to be a fun, kind-hearted and very strong big guy that resembled a professional wrestler/boxer. Meanwhile the villain was a real sadist, brutal and seemed to kill people just for fun. So it was definitely satisfying to see Don Lee punishing the bad guys (sometimes a bit too easily) which was very entertaining. My wife and I really loved watching him punching and kicking with such brute force that would send the criminals literally flying. The type of fighting here was the kind that would satisfy fans of such actions sequence.
Overall this was an entertaining action thriller movie. The investigation was not the complicated type that would require us to think too much as the film focused more on showing us the wild ride with some over the top fight scenes. There were some interesting car chases too but the main attraction would definitely be those hand to hand fights. I believe the audience who were invitees to the special screening event were satisfied with this movie. Oh, even if you have not seen its predecessor, I think you would still be able to enjoy this one. Although if you are like us who prefer to better appreciate a sequel, then it's better to watch that one first. And to give you more confidence in seeing this one, the movie is the top grossing film in South Korea by the time I post this and it had surpassed the tickets sales of the first movie. So if you are looking for good old fashioned movie with these attributes, then you are in for a good time. It's playing on all major cinema chains in Indonesia starting from today.
Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars
No comments:
Post a Comment