A highly gripping portrait of Korean crime syndicate, New World is arguably the best mob film to come out from South Korea since Kim Jee-woon's A Bittersweet Life & is an ingeniously structured, stylishly filmed, firmly composed & violently told cinema that shares a similar thematic structure with Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather. Opening with a bloodied face of a person being tortured as he is suspected of being the mole in the gang, this crime-drama sets the tone for what's to come & as the film progresses, becomes more & more engrossing until it all culminates on a rousing high with an expertly executed finale.
The plot covers the conflicts between the police & the mob through the eyes of an undercover cop who has worked his way up over the past 8 years to become the right hand man of the second-in-command for the throne of Goldmoon; the biggest crime syndicate in Korea. When its leader is killed in a car accident, the crime ring is thrown into a succession struggle of which both the police & the mob wants to make the most of and which in the end comes down to our undercover cop, who must finally make a choice that'll decide the fate of this crime organization.
Outstanding well written & directed by Park Hoon-jung who does a superb job in shaping the story & even better at illustrating it on the screen, skilfully photographed too with fine use of close-ups & camera angles, tightly edited as the film flies through its 134 minutes of runtime, spectacularly scored with music making its way in or out of scenes at the right moments & strongly performed by its stellar cast, New World works because of a combination of many things it does right & is one of the best films of last year plus one of the most impressive mob films in a long time. Do not miss it.
