Movies Reviews

The Unjust (Bu-dang-geo-rae) - New York Asian Film Festival Review

By Ron Wilkinson Jul 6, 2011, 16:57 GMT

A film noir dripping with guilt and laced with absurdity. In Korean Gotham all the cops are criminals and all the sinners saints.

There is trouble in Asian Gotham. Schoolgirls are showing up in pieces all over the country. The police cannot locate a suspect. The president gets involved: “What is this, monsters on parade??!!” No, wait, that is from “Godzilla vs. Mothra.” This is something entirely different.

Nevertheless, the president is still involved and in any language that means action.

Action director Ryoo Seung-Wan cranks out this pot boiling corruption saga about a loner cop and ambitious prosecutor with a feverish dispatch. The lawyer wants the glory and the golden path to political office promised by a successful conviction, at any cost. All that stands in his way is one upstart cop; an alienated outcast who he can take out with his evil backstabbing.

The usual dark looking suspect is chased down but mistakenly killed in a shoot-out with the police. Another botched police arrest---a dead end with no good news for the papers. Hounded by the president and desperate for a hero, the National Police Agency chooses violent outsider Choi Cheol-Gi (Hwang Jung-Min) to take the case. The fact that Choi is not one of the chosen few police academy graduates makes him all the better choice. A lamb to be sacrificed at little cost.

Choi is respected and he can get the job done. However, he has to do it his way. This is Clint Eastwood of the East or maybe Frank Sinatra. It is hard to tell. If he brings back the perp this time he will be granted the promotion and acceptance he craves.

Until then he is doomed to work with gangster Jang Suk-Gu (Yu Hae-Jin) to frame the poor sucker who has been chosen to take the fall. A convicted child molester who is trying to start a new life, this man is going to have a very bad day.

Meanwhile, prosecutor Joo-Yang (Ryoo Seung-Bum) and his tight knit cadre of trained legal assistants (think “The Office,” only set in Korea) is mandated to get the serial killer. This make or break time for the upwardly mobile Joo-Yang. He has built his career on getting convictions with suspicious regularity.

Unfortunately, Joo-Yang has developed a long-standing relationship with a shadowy and powerful real estate businessman. He is dogged by the fear that he owes much of his success to the heartless tycoon. This man knows about all the skeletons in the closet. He can make tofu stew out of Joo-Yang’s career if the prosecutor does not walk the line.

Sure enough, cop Choi Cheol-Gi grows a conscience and attempts to arrest the man who may be the real culprit, instead of the intended frame-up victim. When the evidence points to Joo-Yang's rich and corrupt sponsor, Joo-Yang starts a dossier on Choi Cheol-Gi. He is hoping to catch some evidence he can use to blackmail the cop to stop the investigation. When he comes across a deal between Choi Cheol-Gi and gangster Jang Suk-Gu he thinks he hit pay dirt. He has the key to the safety of his boss and the key to his golden future in the Korean White House.

Jeong-min Hwang is as cool as a cucumber and knows the martial arts moves. This film is much better than most because it concentrates on the film noir aspects of self-doubt and guilt and only drops in the fighting now and then, when it does the most good. The sound and cinematography are professional and tell a good story without torturing the audience.

The best roles go to Seung-beom Ryu as the feckless and morally adrift prosecutor and Hae-jin Yu as the amazingly happy and well-adjusted gangster. These two are hilarious. They add a fantastic dimension of unabashed bureaucratic mockery and gangster role shifting that makes this film something special. Jeong-min Hwang is as good as they get as the isolated and self-punishing cop fighting for his life against his own lack of self-respect.

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Directed by: Seung-wan Ryoo
Written by: Hoon-jung Park
Starring: Jeong-min Hwang, Seung-beom Ryu and Hae-jin Yu 
Release Date: New York Asian Film Festival--June 29, 2011
MPAA: Not Rated
Runtime: 119 minutes
Country: South Korea
Language: Korean
Color: Color