I swear the Netflix bots must think we are Korean subscribers; that’s all my wife watches- Korean dramas and rom-coms. Every day. Every night.
Those aren’t really my thing, but I really have enjoyed and admired so many of the Korean films from the past 10 or 15 years; Old Boy, Mother, Burning, The Host, and Parasite , to name a few).
And now I’ll add a new gritty action flick that also mixes in a sense of humor: I was reminded of 1982’s 48 Hrs. in the sense that there is a lot of bloodshed between the cops and the bad guys, but also a clever quip just often enough to make you smile several times along the way.
The Roundup is like that, thanks to the lead, Don Lee (Korean name Ma Dong-seok), who commands the screen and kicks a lot of ass. He’s probably the last guy you’d peg as an action star: he’s 51 years old and rather portly. More like a bar bouncer. But he’s playing a detective.
Lee and his bumbling boss travel from Seoul to Vietnam to extradite a suspect. Apparently it is not uncommon for Korean criminals to find their way to Southeast Asia where they commit crimes against Korean tourists and other compatriots.
Every good guy needs a good villain to go up against, and Son Seok-koo fills that bill spectacularly. I can’t remember if I heard any gunshots througout the film, but there’s a whole lot of knifing going on and Son is particularly adept at knife fighting. And—oooh, he’s just so nasty.
Without getting into specific plot details, the two detectives find it hard to catch up with their bad guy—in part, because there are so many other bad guys to get through. They will also learn that they’re now looking for a whole series of connected killings.
P.S. I didn’t learn until after I viewed this film that it is billed as a sequel to 2017’s The Outlaws, but it seems to be episodic and stand-alone. The next installment is in production now.
Already a huge box office smash in Asia, The Roundup comes to digital platforms/Video On Demand beginning August 9th
