Brief Story Line
Few years after the events of The Roundup, Detective Ma Seok-do (Ma Dong-seok - Ashfall, The Gangster, the Cop and the Devil etc) now working in the Metropolitan Investigation Unit and partnered with Kim Man-jae (Kim Min-jae - Train to Busan: Peninsula, Unstoppable etc) under the supervision of Captain Jang (Lee Beom-soo - Come Back Home, The Prime Minister and I etc). Their latest case involved new dangerous drugs called Hiper that were sold at some clubs in South Korea. These drugs were distributed by some criminals who got them from a mysterious vicious man (Lee Joon-hyuk - Strangers TV series, No Mercy etc).
It was later found out that those drugs were originally from Japan and produced by the Yakuza. As soon as they realized the drugs were being sold in Korea, the Yakuza assigned their most ruthless assassin named Riki (Munetaka Aoki - Rurouni Kenshin: The Final, Pretty Proofreader TV series etc) to recapture them.
So how would the story conclude? You can find out in this movie.
End of Brief Stry Line
Yeah once again we were able to see Ma Dong-seok punching all the bad guys in this movie. Just like in the previous 2 films in the Crime City series (as what these movies are referred to), there were new vicious criminals in town who had to be put down by Ma Seok-do. It was hilarious that they named his character so similar to his real name, just like his partner Kim Man-jae portrayed by Kim Min-jae. And despite having partner and colleagues, it was clear that Detective Ma was the one who had to fight them by himself as they were either not really helping or late arriving (which was funnily mentioned few times).
After 3 movies, we could see that the formula was almost the same. There was an investigation of the case (which was never too complicated), the interrogation of bad people (who usually ended up in helping the detectives reluctantly) and closed by a major climax fight with the bad guys. This time the intensity was enhanced as there was not one but two of them and it was so satisfying seeing the big guy hitting them till they were knocked out. My wife enjoyed watching these scenes so much that she clapped few times. Oh she noticed that despite Ma being so powerful, there were times where he also got hit and injured. Although personally for me, they were not really a match for him.
As usual, Ma Dong-seok provided some comical moments that was easily done as even though he has such a gigantic body, he has a kind and funny face especially when he smiled (which did not happen so often). I also realized that none of the previous people in the two earlier movies appeared in the main story, but the new captain was still quite amusing. There were few support characters as small time criminals such as Jeon Seok-ho (Kingdom TV series, Hard Hit etc) as Kim Yang-ho and my wife's favorite Ko Kyu-pil (Stellar, Partners for Justice etc) as Cherry. And some cameos, including one person shown during the mid end credit scene which gave a clear indication there would be a fourth movie (targeted to release in 2024 titled The Roundup: Punishment). Oh there was no post end credit scene here.
In term of the bad guys, I actually felt that the person in the second movie was the most frightening one as he was able to instill fear for us audience. I also thought he was a pretty good adversary for Ma And their fights seemed to last longer than the ones here, although the satisfaction remains the same. It has a duration of 105 minutes which felt just nice. Btw, this movie is still quite brand new as I read that it was only released in South Korea on 31 May and already showing signs of successful commercially like its predecessors. No wonder they were so convinced to make another sequel (and possibly more in the future).
Overall this is another enjoyable and fun action comedy movie. It felt a bit lighter than before with its comedy but the fights were still brutal and violent. No disturbing killing scenes shown on screen like those gore films, but we could picture them with the sound effect of the bludgeoning or swords thrusting on the body. Despite having a very standard investigation story, the fights involving Don Lee were more than sufficient to please us audience. So if you have no problem with formulaic plot and just want to have fun seeing Don Lee hitting bad guys, then you would enjoy this movie like my wife and I did.
Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
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