Eye For An Eye has a story so well trodden, you would be walking along a trench; a cop ready to retire who has to see the last job to the end, a devious new criminal gang appear toying with the cops and the established hoods who are well ingrained due to rife corruption in the system. All the makings of an entertaining yet familiar caper.
One of the films two directors, Kwan Kyung Taek, is a big deal in South Korea. Massive success was achieved by his 2001 mega- blockbuster, Chingu, which still stands at number 19 on the all time box office receipts with over 8 million people splurging their money to see it. Kwan has never managed to match or even come close to the financial success . But I feel that his failings as a director are far worse. Chingu runs the gamut of tough upbringing gangsters, 2003's Mutt Boy seems to have forgotten what a plot is and replaced it with violence and Typhoon from 2005 is just plain daft. To put it bluntly the man is a poor director and perhaps the finest example of his flaws is Eye For An Eye. Kwan co-directs the second half f the film whilst Ahn Kwon Tae handles the second part.
Given a fantastic cast including the always interesting, usually fantastic Cha Seung Won and the versatile Han Suk Kyu and a plethora of Korea's finest supporting actors combined with an intriguing revenge plot should be a recipe for cinematic gold. However in the hands of the two director's, they manage to create an erratic and extremely unbelievably performance from Han and develops no sympathy for Cha's character. The direction of the action scenes are poor, the editing makes the film more confusing than it needs be and there is a real lack of character development which devalues the story's twists and turns.
Of late, many films have received unnecessary remakes,but this film is crying out it. It would be great if the same cast could reconvene but with a competent director who can develop characters and build tension. Overall, a great idea on paper but the execution is incompetent.
