Korean Reviews Reviews

Film Review: Veteran (2015) by Ryoo Seung-wan

The winner of the Blue Dragon Award for Best Direction and currently the third highest grossing film in South Korean cinema history, “” is one of the most entertaining films to come out of S.Korea in the last few years, in the fashion of the Hong Kong action comedies of the 80s.

Veteran Amazon

The film starts with a rather “goofy” mood, as it introduces a police team that hassles a grand theft auto gang, an attempt that results in their arrest after the in-field leader of the team and the film's protagonist, Detective Seol Do Cheol, beats them up to a pulp, while extracting a confession from their leader. Subsequently, and after the arrest of a Russian gang, the film takes a turn to the dramatic, as it presents the story of Bae, a truck driver who becomes the victim of a violent and ruthless heir of a large conglomerate, in an incident that results in his alleged suicide and his treatment in a hospital while comatose. From that point on, the film becomes a confrontation between Seol and the aforementioned heir, named Cho Tae Ho, a truly despicable human being who even his own father despises

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directed a sublime action film, incorporating artfully elements of all the themes and motives this kind of movie should entail, including very fast pace, martial arts, car and human chasing, comedy, and a clear distinction between good and evil. Moreover, he incorporated the most popular theme in Korea nowadays, the corruption of the richest and its effect on public institutions, as the Police Force and the Judiciary.

The action choreographer, did an astonishing job in a plethora of scenes, particularly the ending one, which is utterly impressive. The action scenes also benefit the most by the rapid editing of and , that guides perfectly the general pace of the film. Along with the impressive cinematography by , which gives great images in the urban setting, the film is actually a visual masterpiece, as its large budget was perfectly implemented in the technical aspect.

is great as usual as Seol Do-cheol and Yoo Ahn-in portrays impressively a truly onerous character as Cho Tae-ho. Of equal quality is the performance by as Team Leader Oh, who, once more, represents the comical element in the film, and by , who is great in portraying a lowly and truly despicable villain.

“Veteran” is a great film, one of the rare productions that manage to combine blockbuster aesthetics with true film artistry.

About the author

Panos Kotzathanasis

My name is Panos Kotzathanasis and I am Greek. Being a fan of Asian cinema and especially of Chinese kung fu and Japanese samurai movies since I was a little kid, I cultivated that love during my adolescence, to extend to the whole of SE Asia.

Starting from my own blog in Greek, I then moved on to write for some of the major publications in Greece, and in a number of websites dealing with (Asian) cinema, such as Taste of Cinema, Hancinema, EasternKicks, Chinese Policy Institute, and of course, Asian Movie Pulse. in which I still continue to contribute.

In the beginning of 2017, I launched my own website, Asian Film Vault, which I merged in 2018 with Asian Movie Pulse, creating the most complete website about the Asian movie industry, as it deals with almost every country from East and South Asia, and definitely all genres.

You can follow me on Facebook and Twitter.

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