Seasoned
Detective Seo Do-cheol served as a technical advisor to a TV cop show, but he is not
about to go Hollywood. Frankly, he is too undisciplined for any sort of
corruption. While he is no end of headaches for his frustrated wife and task
force leader, he is the last cop any bad guy would want on his case. A coked-up
sadistic corporate heir will learn that the hard way when he messes with a
friendly acquaintance of Seo’s (Hell yes, that’s all it takes) in Ryoo
Seung-wan’s Veteran (trailer here), which opens this
Friday in New York, after laying a smackdown on this year’s TIFF.
After
busting a high-end car theft ring Det. Seo and team leader Oh are poised for
national promotion. Of course, the car thieves did not give up without a fight,
but that was A-OK with Seo. If he can keep quiet for next month or so, he’ll be
moving on up. Unfortunately, he meets the reprehensible Jo Tae-oh at a party
for the TV show he basically lent his name to. Watching his abusive behavior towards
women rubs the cop the wrong way. When he subsequently learns the truck driver
he contracted during the stolen car sting tried to commit suicide at the Sunjin
Group, Jo’s perennially under-investigation conglomerate, Seo launches a
personal investigation.
Apparently,
Bae Cheol-ho and his driver colleagues were fired by a Sunjin holding company
for joining a union. Since said union is nowhere to be seen, it is safe to say
Bae’s dues were not well spent. Regardless, when Bae crashes the corporate
office seeking the wages owed him, Jo humiliates him, forcing him to box the
thuggish manager Jeon, who pink-slipped him. Needless to say, the bout does not
go well for Bae. In fact, he throws himself down the Sunjin stairwell, ending
up in a coma rather than the morgue. Unfortunately, the case is not in Seo’s
jurisdiction, but he is not about to let bureaucratic niceties dissuade him. Jo
and his chief fixer, VP Choi Dae-ung play hardball, but they keep
misunderestimating Seo’s obstinate tenacity.
Despite
the somewhat clichéd class warfare themes (seriously, whatever happened to that
disappearing union?), Veteran is a
rock’em sock’em action film that benefits from its comparatively narrow scope
and proletarian sensibility. Seo and Jo just really, really do not like each
other. That builds mucho anticipation for their climatic face-off, which pays
off nicely.
Hwang
Jung-min is perfect as the rough-edged, slightly eccentric Seo, taking the
maverick cop to a whole new level of unruliness. Yoo Ah-in is just okay as Jo,
a standard issue villain whose likes we have often seen before, but Yu Hae-jin
is terrific as his calculating right-hand Choi. Oh Dal-su largely keeps the
shtick in check as the put-upon team leader, but Jin Kyung (his co-star in the
even more awesome Assassination)
really makes an impression in her brief but meaningful appearances as Seo’s
less-than-amused wife Joo-yeon. Rather inexplicably, Ma Dong-seok (a.k.a. Don
Lee) also has a fleeting cameo as a stationary store owner, but he’s still
pretty cool.
