Choi (Choi Woo-sik) is a straight-as-an-arrow rookie cop and honest to a default - which is when he tells on his partner after a minor infraction, he attracts the attention of Hwang (Park Hee-soon), head of Internal Affairs. Now Internal Affairs has had their tabs on seasoned cop Park (Cho Jin-woong) for a while now - and thus, Choi is soon made a part of Park's team, and Park takes pretty much an immediate liking to Choi as Choi's father was his mentor. Now Park and his team investigate in the affairs of crime kingpin Na (Kwon Yul), and one thing's for sure, Park sure is unconventional in his methods, which includes lending money from a loan shark certain assignments, plus he's sponsored by a group of elite businessmen - but none of this is actually illegal, and mostly over the table. And Choi writes as much in his report, and yet Park's home is eventually raided by Internal Affairs, and it doesn't take Park's team long to figure that Choi was the snitch. However, Park is acquitted, and even though he knows Choi is working for Internal Affairs now he keeps him on, but demands a sort of pledge of allegiance - and that's badly needed, too, as now he goes after Na's organisation full blast, and to succeed has even asked for the support of Na's arch rival Cha (Park Myeong-hoon) as well as the yakuza for support - something that's a bit of a suicide mission, even without Internal Affairs on one's tail ...

A very powerful cop thriller that granted might at first glance seem a bit taxing in terms of the complexity of its plot. But overall it really succeeds in bringing its core narrative of a cop torn between two rights that might make a wrong across very nicely, thanks to finding the right balance between violent outbursts, exciting setpieces but also quieter moments, but also to well-fleshed out characters that remain relatable throughout (even if their actions become debatable over the course of the movie), and of course a strong cast only helps making this one very cool piece of genre cinema.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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