Writer/director Park Hoon-jung’s super-charged Korean action/thriller punches far above its weight right from the unsanctioned boxing match that follows hard on its mob vs mob prologue. What follows is Bloody Clever (twists, ‘rhymed’ plot reveals & delayed pay-offs Dumas might have okayed); Bloody Satisfying (apparently independent plot strands woven into one); and just plain Bloody Bloody (in the modern free-flowing manner though less graphic than it seems). Kang Tae-Ju’s the young boxer, fighting to raise cash for his sick mother when he’s told of the rich Korean tycoon who’s his secret father. Heading to Korea to guilt trip Putative Pop for cash, he’s unaware he’s hunting up a dying man or that he’s placing himself directly between the legitimate son & daughter (from different wives) already at war to collect the dying man’s fortune, each with their own fighting force of killers. Yikes! But wait, only one of the two wants Kim dead right now. The other only wants him dead . . . eventually. Yet both sides will do anything to grab him. Worse, there’s a third hunter, an Action Jackson figure whose loyalties (if any) are undetermined. This is Kim Sean-ho, a remarkable Johnny-on-the-spot, always there beside Kang Tae-Ju, always smiling (when he’s not wheezing from exhaustion), and stealing the whole film out from everyone before tucking it in his perfectly-tailored suit pocket. Hollywood! Grab this guy immediately!*
DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: This is the film Quentin Taratino thought he was making with his KILL BILLs. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2008/05/kill-bill-volume-one-2003.html https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2008/05/kill-bill-volume-2-2004.html
SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: *Imagine classical pianist Lang Lang as an action figure. That’s Kim Seon-ho, second of the four leads on our poster. (see above)
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