Back in 2019, I wrote about “Believer”, a Korean adaptation of Johnnie To's “Drug Wars”: “Believer” is an impressive and quite entertaining action thriller, which highlights the fact that Johnnie To's productions can be very easily adapted to the current style of Korean cinema. I am sure the success of this one will open the way for more, and personally, I cannot wait. As such, I was really eager to watch the sequel, which premiered in Busan this year and started streaming on Netflix a couple of days ago. The result, however, as is frequently the case with sequels, was not exactly as expected.
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The film begins with a sequence showing what happened in the first part, focusing on Brian's incarceration and the insistence of detective Won-ho that Mr Lee, the actual leader of the international drug cartel, is still roaming free, against the insistence of his higher ups, who just want to close the case. While Laika, the infamous drug the cartel is selling, continues to be found, the reappearance of the two deafmute genius chemists, Manko an Lona, and the emergence of Seo Young-rak, a mysterious man who seems to know the most about Mr Lee and Big Knife, a ragtag, intensely violent sociopathic woman from China, confuses things even more. Add to that the reemergence of Brian, and inevitably, the blood baths follow one another until the finale which takes a completely different turn.
Evidently, the sequel is on a lower level than its predecessor, particularly in the way the narrative unfolds, plus the critique for the movie's characters being paper thin, that most critics mentioned, is not exactly wrong. Moreover, it is easy to say that “Believer 2” does present a fetishization of violence in fanservice style, while the somewhat racist comments regarding the Chinese and the Thais become evident after a point.
So, what are the film's merits one would ask? As was the case with the action movies of Hong Kong from the past, which frequently followed the same nonsensical path this one also follows, “Believer 2” is also a lot of fun. Probably the biggest source of entertainment here is Big Knife, who frequently functions as a paranoid, ultra violent caricature straight from the pages of a manga, with the fact that her overall demeanor is that of a child essentially, adding much to her overall presence. Unrecognizable Han Hyo-joo is astonishing in the part, proving once more her knack for playing different types of roles with the same prowess.
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The second point of appeal are the duo of deafmute, drug producing chemists, with their connection and love for each other, as much as the punishment they receive and their fate being one of the most appealing aspects of the movie, and also one of the main sources of drama here. Won-ho's desperation and eagerness to be believed is another trait , with Cho Jin-woong's charisma filling the screen once more, each time he appears on it, even though his role is not exactly great this time. Cha Seung-won as Brian is also quite good, in a character that is both the villain and probably the most punished in the movie, cementing the overall great casting here.
Furthermore, the relentless, ultra-violent, comic-like action is definitely fun to watch for the majority of the movie, with DP Kim Tae-kyung II capturing it in a fashion that is both polished and ‘dirty', in an approach that can easily be described as no-punches-pulled. That Baek takes full advantage of his characters in that regard, emerges as the best trait of his direction. Kim Sun-min's editing results in an expectedly, but also quite fitting fast pace, which suits the music-video, comic-like aesthetics of the movie perfectly, up until the finale.
And I say until the finale, because the effort to include the all time Korean audience favorite melodrama in the end of the movie definitely falls short, in an aspect that is annoyingly disconnected from the rest of the story, plus breaks the rhythm implemented by the action up to that point, in the most annoying fashion.
Up to that point, however, fans of comic-like violence, who focus mostly on entertainment without any particular need for logic and (deep) comments, will find a lot to like here, with “Believer 2” definitely being a fun film.
