(2024) I, The Executioner - An Entertaining Sequel to a Hugely Successful 2015 Action Comedy Movie

This week there were not a lot of new releases in the cinemas compared to last few months and among those films, my wife and I were only really interested in this South Korean movie. So after few considerations, we finally decided to see this in the theater a bit further in Senayan area since it was not playing in the studios near our home. All right, I'll get to it now.

Brief Story Line

Senior Detective Seo Do-cheol (Hwang Jung-min - The Battleship Island, Mission: Cross etc) from the violent crime division had been working for years along with his team members Detective Bong (Jang Yoon-ju - Money Heist: Korea - Joint Economic Area TV series, Ballerina etc), Detective Wang (Oh Dae-hwan - Mission: Possible, Shadow Detective TV series etc) and Detective Yoon (Kim Si-hoo - Eclipse, Apple of My Eye etc) under the supervision of Captain Oh (Oh Dal-su - The Wild, Big Bad TV series etc). Subsequently they were joined by a police officer named Park Sun-woo (Jung Hae-in - Connect TV series, Tune In For Love etc) who caught the eye of Seo after showing his capabilities.

When a man who was referred to as Haechi started killing criminals that were not punished enough by the law, Seo's team members were tasked to guard a former murderer named Jeon Seok-woo (Jung Man-sik - Revolver, The Swordsman etc) who was just released from prison after serving short time. Though hesitant, Seo still perform their task seriously. Things gotten more complicated with the media's strong interest on Haechi and people's support on his action.

So how would the story conclude? You could find out in this movie.

End of Brief Story Line

I found out from my wife that this movie was actually a sequel of 2015 movie titled Veteran where the story also revolved around Detective Seo and his team in dealing with violent crimes. However, it was a challenge to watch that film so I decided to just pass it and went straight to this new movie. And until we finished it, both of us felt there was nothing in the movie that was heavily linked to the original. Although there were few glimpses of scenes that seemed to be taken from the predecessor, but they did not make us difficult to understand. 

This movie started of with a case handled by the Violent crime division which set as reminder to audience who had seen the first movie and intro for us who have not. It actually looked like quite humorous, but subsequently I did not feel the film to be relying on comedy. Anyway the crime was indeed violent and there were plenty of action with some good enough hand to hand fighting scenes. The story was not too light but not very heavy either which made us could simply enjoy the movie without having to scratch our heads to understand. The best part for us would definitely be the climax fight scenes which were very intense and entertaining.

The movie had a duration of 118 minutes that might seem long but I think it's just nice to sufficiently cover what the movie maker wanted to show. Btw, it's directed by Ryoo Seung-wan (Smugglers, Escape from Mogadishu etc) who was also the director of the original. There was surprisingly a post-end credit scene that we believed was quite important and likely a hint for a third movie. Based on the Box Office performance where till now it already reached 2024 Top 3 in South Korea despite just released two weeks ago, I think there is strong possibility for another sequel.

My wife somehow found the original via online streaming and watched it immediately after we saw this and she confirmed that the only link were the main characters who reprise their roles, including the youtuber Park (Shin Seung-hwan - Devils, Bad Prosecutor TV series etc) and the criminal Jeon. Aside from those, there was also the addional cast of Jin Kyung (Yaksha: Ruthless Operations, My Lovely Liar TV series etc) who still portrayed Seo's wife Joo-yeon, Ahn Bo-hyun (My Name TV series, Noryang: Deadly Sea etc) and few others. But the main stars were definitely Hwang Jung-min and Jung Hae-in who seemed comfortable enough in this role. And I also admired Hwang's ability in the action scenes.

Overall this was an entertaining action thriller movie that would satisfy fans of such genre. The action was top notch without having to rely on so much computer effects and the story was easy enough to digest. Personally though I hoped there were a bit more comedy, but the action was still satisfying. I could understand the appeal of this movie in South Korea, especially since the original was Top 5 of South Korean all time high and those who loved it would certainly do not want to miss out on its sequel. So if you are looking for a movie with such attributes, then I think you are going to enjoy this. But if your preference is a heavy on investigation movie with lots of dramatic moments & twists or a very full action kind, then this might not be to your satisfaction. 

Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars