The Hong Kong poster for
South Korean hit movie Veteran
Veteran (South Korea, 2015)
- Ryoo Seung Wan, director and scriptwriter
- Starring: Hwang Jung Min, Yoo An In, Yu Hae Jin, Oh Dal Su
A couple of evenings before I left on my recent Japan trip,
I had the pleasure of attending a preview screening of a South Korean
film that went on general release in Hong Kong cinemas today. Scripted
and directed by the helmer of 2013 spy action-drama The Berlin File, it reunites the star and main supporting actor of last year's hit tearjerker, Ode to My Father,
and sees them and pretty much everyone involved in the offering pulling
out the stops to put together a fabulously exciting show.
Veteran
begins with a team of plainclothes detectives going after an
international auto theft ring with no small amount of energy and
panache. Much action, fun and comedy ensue during what turns out to be
just the lively prelude of an ultra eventful movie whose main event
involves veteran cop Seo Do Cheol (Hwang Jung Min) going up against Jo
Tae Oh (Yoo An In), the horribly arrogant asshole scion of a powerful chaebol
boss (Song Young Chang) that the detective first crosses paths with in a
private room of an exclusive nightclub that Seo isn't used to
frequenting but Jo most certainly is.
The
next time the two men see each other, it's at Jo's corporation's
building -- where Seo has gone to find out what had led to an affable
truck driver (Jung Woong In) the veteran policeman had met on the job
coming perilously close to an untimely end. Although the cops assigned
to investigate the case are inclined to view it as an open-and-shut
suicide attempt, Seo learns from the now unconscious and barely alive
truck driver's young son (Kim Jae Hyeon) of details that rouses his
suspicions and get him thinking a cover-up has been put in place.
With
the movie's audience having been witness to the ugly events that had
transpired in Jo's office after he had invited the trusting truck driver
and his son up there, there's no doubt as to the wrongdoings that have
taken place. Also, along with what had transpired looking to have been
designed to hammer home the message that with wealth, comes the kind of
power to easily destroy the lives of monetarily less well off innocents,
it's patently clear who are the film's good guys and who are the evil
guys.
Consequently, much of the intrigue and tension in Veteran comes
from seeing how far the bad guys -- specifically, Jo and the slimy Choi
(Yu Hae Jin) whose main job appears to be to cover his boss' tracks,
usually by paying various people off -- are willing to, and can, go to
prevent justice from being served; and what sacrifices Seo and those who
support him -- his formidable wife (Jin Kyung), his comrades (including
a badass policewoman played by film debut-making singer-model Jang
Yoon Ju) and his boss (Oh Dal
Su) -- will be asked to make to nail the sort of privileged fellow who
usually is allowed to get away with everything, including murder.
Considering the thrust of its main story, it should come as no surprise that Veteran
has some emotionally intense scenes. Less expected though is how
director-scriptwriter Ryoo proves adept at throwing in a few moments
that get the film's viewer(s) laughing out loud (including early ones
involving noodle-eating and later ones involving the recounting of
injuries cops get while in the line of duty) that blend well with the
rest of the picture rather than stick out like sore thumbs!
This
entertaining offering's standout sections also include the action
sequences choreographed by Ryoo's long-term collaborator, Jung Doo
Hong. Some of them (including one where a car clearly hits a stuntman
rather than a computer-generated creation) made me nostalgic for their
1980s-1990s Hong Kong cinema equivalents while others are inspiredly
original, stylishly enacted and splendidly lensed.
My rating for this film: 9.0
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