This is my least favorite kind of bad movie: a movie where the director shows some talent, but is so impressed with his own sense of style that he forgets to tell any kind of story. This Korean crime flick ends up being a struggle to get through.
The "plot" has two detectives trying to track down a drug kingpin, or something. Over and over they catch a suspect, beat some sort of clue out of him, and are led to another suspect, when they repeat the process. The two detectives are given almost no characterization or motivation, other than sadism, so we would be tempted to root for the bad guys, but they don't have any character either. There's not even a context for the crime the detectives are trying to solve. It's a murder, but we have no idea what it's about or why it's so much more important than all the other murders the cops are currently investigating. For most of the film there's no sense of urgency, suspense, or a personal stake for either the viewer or the protagonists.
Instead of plot or characters the director tries to dazzle us with technique. The story moves from one music video/fight scene to another with very little setup. We see odd angles, changes in film stock, strange wipes, slo-mo and stills, etc., but there doesn't seem to be much of a point to any of the effects. They don't accentuate the action, they just draw attention to themselves. The overwhelming impression is of a 114 minute long music video.
Frankly, I'm just not very impressed with the new wave of Korean cinema, with the exception of OLDBOY. The filmmakers all seem to be imitating Quentin Tarantino and John Woo, while keep forgetting that those much better directors always make sure to start with a compelling story before they add the flashy, over-the-top effects.
1.5/5 stars. Extremely self-indulgent and annoying.
