The Roundup 범죄도시 2 Beomjweo Doshi “Crime City 2”
Writer/Director: Lee Sang-yong 이 상용
Rated R | $101 M worldwide* | 1 hr 46 min
ACTION CRIME THRILLER • May 18, 2022 (South Korea)
“I’m getting this fucker, no matter what.”
The Roundup is the action crime thriller sequel to The Outlaws. Ma Dong-seok 마 덩석 returns as Detective “Ma Seok-do” along with most of his supporting cast. This time, he and his Captain are off to Vietnam to pick up a fugitive jewelry store robber who turned himself in, not to the police but to the Korean Consulate in Ho Chi Minh city. Needless to say, there’s a lot more to the story and Detective Ma wastes no time and ‘effort’ LOL getting to the bottom of it.
At the bottom of it is the crazy and dangerous villain “Kang Hae-sang”—even his fellow criminals fear him and think he’s crazy. Like in the first movie, the actor cast as the villain is someone that seemed wildly different in a preceding KDrama. Son Seok-ku 손 석구 played such a laid-back, soft-spoken drunk in My Liberation Notes that, like the casting of Yoon Kye-sang 윤 켜상 from Chocolate in The Outlaws, Son as a ruthless kidnapper/murderer is just an expected turn. Both actors really embraced the roles. I thought Son Seok-ku’s performance in My Liberation Notes was some of the best acting I’ve ever seen, so I was thrilled to watch him go feral in this. [If you haven’t watched that show, you will not be disappointed. All the acting and the writing is top notch! (It was written by Park Hae-yeong 박 해영, also the author of the most excellent My Mister featuring a brilliant performance by IU).] Son is a relative newcomer since his acting career began in 2014. And I’m not the only one who was super impressed as his popularity surged and he won “Best New Actor” for this Roundup role from the Korean Association of Film Critics Awards! (also known as the critics’ choice awards)
This movie is true to the formula of the first one and the character dynamics are almost as enjoyable as Detective Ma’s ‘beast cop’ tactics. At one point he says “If this country’s laws can’t protect our people, then shouldn’t we?” In many ways he’s a Dirty Harry figure taking the law into his own hands to get the job done, and I am here for it. It does make you wonder, though, as a businessman (“glorified loan shark”) whose son gets killed sends mercenaries to get the ransom back and kill Kang Hae-sang, in real life just how rampant is the behavior of working outside the law?
Although fearless (he throws down in a room of 50 gangsters and dominates) Detective Ma soon finds himself in—as The Transporter put it “a bit of the shit.” The massacre that unfolds will make you glad you’re not a cop.
I don’t know if it’s supposed to be funny, but Kang Hae-sang gets hung up on when he has the nerve to call the dead man’s (“Choi Young-gi”) glorified loan shark father (“Choi Choon-baek”) and demand the money back (the mercenaries arrived and took it, then laid in wait to kill Kang Hae-sang). Too bad for all of them, Kang is a monster. As he unsuccessfully tries to make his crazy demands, the fact that he’s remarks on the victim’s manners shows how nuts he is. I found it chilling, not funny. Maybe that was the intent. His delivery is amazing.
When Detective Ma finally catches up with Kang, the fight scene of two against one serves to highlight either his fearless or skills or both. The fight choreography is creative and well-executed but I can’t find a credit for that. Looked it up and got 파이트 안무가 Paiteu Anmuga? So much to learn! Might be that Ma Dong-seok did most of it himself since before he was an actor he was the personal trainer for two mixed martial arts artists. Wikipedia says “Ma has been an amateur armwrestler since 2008, and he became the president of Korea Armwrestling Federation in 2018.” Not to slight Son Suk-ku’s abilities, all Korean men ages 18 to 35 have to perform compulsory military service and those who qualify as active duty soldiers may serve from 1 year and 6 months to 1 year and 9 months depending on the branch they qualify for. For women, it’s voluntary. You have to wonder how much training he got to be able to pretend fight Ma Dong-seok and make it look good. If he didn’t have a double, he did a great job of being thrown around and pulverized.
The novelty of how they used a bus for the fight scene was really exciting and effective and even had it’s moments of comic relief in the form of disbelief. The punches and hits look so real. The “monster cop” extracts vengeance and it’s so satisfying. I would highly recommend this movie (but watch The Outlaws first, just because it adds to the enjoyment of seeing these characters again). I watched it on Rakuten Viki where they gave it a 9.6 (0.1 higher than The Outlaws). Rotten Tomatoes gives it 96%, Audience Score is 100%. <—@@ It’s really so enjoyable, I didn’t write as much as I’d have liked because I don’t want to give too much away.
Kudos to Writer/Director Lee Sang-yong for keeping the sequel true to the original and managing to make it even more enjoyable!
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*Box Office stat from BoxOfficeMojo.com