Jjakpae (2006)

Tae-su, a detective fighting organized crime, returns to his hometown for his high school friend Wang-jae's funeral. At the funeral, he meets his old friends Pil-ho, Dong-hwan and Seok-hwan... See full summary »

Director:

Seung-wan Ryoo

Writers:

Jung-min Kim, Won-jae Lee

Stars:

Jae-mo Ahn, Kil-kang Ahn, Dong-Hyeon Baek

1 win & 6 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Jae-mo Ahn	...	Cameo
Kil-kang Ahn	...	Wang-jae (as Kil-Kang Ahn)
Dong-Hyeon Baek
Richard Epcar	...	Additional Voices (voice)
Seok-yong Jeong	...	Dong-hwan
Deok-hyeon Jo
Gyoo-Cheol Jo
Lee Joo-Shil	...	(as Ju-shil Lee)
Doo-hong Jung	...	Tae-su
Byeong-ok Kim
Jeong-sang Kim
Kkobbi Kim	...	Prostitute Schoolgirl (as Kim Kkobbi)
Mi-ra Kim
Seo-hyeong Kim	...	Cameo
Shi-hoo Kim

Storyline

Tae-su, a detective fighting organized crime, returns to his hometown for his high school friend Wang-jae's funeral. At the funeral, he meets his old friends Pil-ho, Dong-hwan and Seok-hwan and they reminisce. Suspecting something fishy about Wang-jae's death, Tae-su and Seok-hwan start investigating it each in his own way. Both of their investigations lead to a land development project that Pil-ho is directing and the two embark on a difficult battle.

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Plot Keywords:

organized crime | fighting | police station attack | police officer neck broken | police officer stabbed | 

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Genres:

Action

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Details

Official Sites:

Official site [South Korea] Official site [UK]

Country:

South Korea

Language:

Korean

Release Date:

25 May 2006 (South Korea)

Also Known As:

A Cidade da Violência

Filming Locations:

South Korea

Box Office

Budget:

$2,400,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Weyunaegang Productions

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

DTS

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Connections

References The Warriors (1979)

User Reviews

Passable, but nothing special...

This is an entertaining enough modern-day martial arts action thriller which is, it has to be said, entirely unoriginal in almost every respect. The plot concerns a city cop returning to his hometown for the funeral of a childhood friend, victim of a back-alley knifing while chasing thugs from his bar. Together with a second childhood friend, our hero suspects something amiss and begins his own investigation into the murder. This decision is the cue for a succession of unlikely encounters and a particularly bloody and fatal encounter with yet another childhood friend.

There are some people whose personalities are so under-developed that they have a tendency to adopt the characteristics of those they are close to (accent, mannerisms, etc), and this film reminded me a lot of people like that. Watching it, I got the impression that the writer/director was mimicking every film he wished he'd made. There are a number of obvious 'homages', and a flashback to a juvenile fight that is as (hopefully deliberately) cheesy as any 70s chop-socky sequence. One of the 'homages' is to Quentin Tarantino's (himself the king of the 'homage') over-rated Kill Bill so if, like me, you were bored by Tarantino's self-indulgence, you might consider thinking twice about watching a film whose writer obviously thinks so highly of it. Having said that, there is something ironic about an Asian film so clearly referencing a film which blatantly ripped off so many of the staple devices of its national genre.

The action is as frenetic and professional as you'd expect, and the storyline is reasonably engaging but, when all is said and done, this is really nothing more than a decent time-filler.