Director: Jung Woo-sung
Screenplay: Jung Hae-sin, Jung Woo-sung
Cast: Jung Woo-sung, Kim Nam-gil, Park Sung-woong, Kim Jun-han, Park You-na
Country: South Korea
Running Time: 103 mins
Year: 2022
To any mob bosses reading this—because of course you are—would it be so hard to just let your guys retire after years of legendary bloodshed? Let them find themselves in prison, run their delis in the suburbs, raise their impossibly cute kids and/or puppies, and look after their occasionally terminally ill loves of their lives. And for God’s sake, just pay them what’s due and tell your younger staff members nothing. Don’t whisper the names of their ruthless, iconic predecessors like they’re the bogeyman. It just leads to a fuss. An expensive one, considering the amount of ammo and black SUVs the death squads get through.
Since Lee Marvin just wanted his cash in Point Blank right up to Keanu Reeves avenging his puppy, the reluctant enforcer is one of cinema’s most well-trodden tropes. Even Michael Corleone, famously, thought he “was out”. The appeal is fascinating; these are cold-blooded murderers, but we cut them slack every damn time. It’s a fun set-up that leads to extraordinary set-pieces, which is a good job in Jung Woo-sung’s A Man Of Reason because the reason is wafer-thin. The trope in this case is almost as tired as the weary anti-hero.
The plot is laughably and predictably dull. Released from prison, Soo-hyuk (Jung Woo-sung also stars) just wishes for a quiet life with his former lover. In the meantime, she’s developed cancer and a daughter (honestly, would a puppy as well have been so hard?) and his boss feels betrayed. Cue shenanigans.
The performances are great, so it’s a shame the script gives them nothing. As a drama, it would be astonishingly dull, but we’re not here for drama. As a glossy stage for stunts and choreography, Woo-sung’s debut is incredible. On release from jail, Soo-hyuk finds his old car waiting for him: a beefed-up black BMW 5-series with a very satisfying growl. He may be a Man of Very Little Reason, but it’s enough of one to justify driving the car into his boss’s lobby and doing doughnuts, flinging bad guys all over the place. He has some very fun tussles with a pair of crazy assassins, and the slick cinematography is given a quirky edge with a repeated motif in Gotye’s Somebody That I Used to Know earworm.
Apparently the song was picked for the instrumental, but the subject also reflected the plot. Perhaps if that much effort was put into the story throughout, we’d have a minor classic on our hands. Still, when the action is underway, it’s breathlessly thrilling stuff.
VIDEO
This is one of Toy Robot’s first slate of releases, and I’m sorry there isn’t more to say. It’s a perfectly adequate HD transfer in a 2.39:1 ratio. A nice, punchy demo of Jung Woo-sung’s potential. But it’s a Korean film from 2022, so it’s what we’d expect as a home video presentation. Toy Robot are also releasing some older stuff which will be much more interesting.
EXTRA FEATURES
Again, I’m reaching here. Toy Robot is a subsidiary of Arrow, and I’m really enjoying the style of a cute robot pulling the menu across the screen. The extras in this case, though, are as thin as the movie’s plot—mainly production video largely presented with minimal context.
- Pre-production featurette
- Production featurette
- Interviews with director Jung Woo-sung and cast, including Kim Nam-gil, Park Sung-woong and Kim Jun-han
- Deleted scene with optional commentary
- Theatrical and teaser trailers
