Another Public Enemy (2005)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

I'll tell you why so serious

A Masterpiece!

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

I haven't seen many foreign films but a friend past along the Korean DVD to me and I have to say I am now a huge fan and plan to watch more. The two main actors were soo perfect opposite each other. Most Hollywood cop/bad guy films only care about the moments of fighting or action where this film is all about the actually fight between the two leads. It's kind of like watching an episode of Law & Order where you are presented the problem and go through the whole execution of busting the bad guy. That isn't to say that there aren't cool fight scenes, there is this huge one with like 40 guys fighting each other during a police bust which felt like a crazy martial arts film. I loved that. Oh and the have a lot of bikes in the film which i also love. I totally recommend this to someone who wants to see a smart Asian attempt at the police/crime genre!

This movie is the typical South Korean film that relies on melodrama, plot holes, unbelievable characters and, as always, a dash of nationalistic pride. Even the main character, a city prosecutor, is hard to sympathize with as his main motivation for pursuing the antagonist is because of resentment he felt for this person back in high school. The scene where dozens of police cars show up out of thin air and have every street in Seoul blocked off to catch some motorcyclists requires the viewer to suspend all logic. There are some Korean films that show promise for the future of the industry in Korea. This isn't one of them.

This movie is a very stereotypical police-gangster movie ambient ed in South-Korea. The characters act so childishly and everything is so simplistic that you can hardly believe it when you are watching it. When the protagonist is being "funny" he is just painful to watch. The rhythm is very, very slow, almost like a TV series and with few if any ellipsis. That's what makes the movie so incredibly LONG, I spent 2 and a half hours watching Koreans making bad jokes, many people in my screen didn't stand it all. The patriotic part when the protagonist says how proud he is his national team reached the semifinals in the world cup is shameful. I expected to see some martial arts but besides the spectacular beginning there's very little of it. Is not the kind of movie you hate, but, seriously, avoid it.

First of all, let's get one thing straight. This film is in no way a follow-up to the excellent 'Public Enemy' film of a few years back. This mess of a film has a couple of good (but not great) action scenes and a whole warehouse of padding in-between. This movie lasts an incredible 148 minutes. The story could have been told in half the time. Kyung-gu Sol plays a public prosecutor with such lack of expression, it was hard to believe that he was the riveting star of the original film. His adversary is an old school pal called Han, played by Jun-ho Jeong who obviously learned his craft at some Victorian school of melodrama; such was the the sneering and lip curling that made up the core of his performance. It was as if he had 'Baddy' etched into his forehead. I was only sorry that he didn't sport a large curly moustache because he could have twirled that between his fingers magnificently. As the minutes limped by, I waited for the big finale. And waited. And waited. When it eventually came, it was the 2 lead blokes having a fist fight in a garden water feature. Good guy wins, bad guy goes to prison. Good guy says to bad guy as he steps on the prison bus: 'I'll see you in 20 years'. Roll credits. Not one of Korea's finest movie moments!