36 Believer (독전)

#noir #drug war #Lee Hae-young #Cho Jin-woong #Kim Sung-ryoung #Ryu Jun-yeol #Kim Joo-hyuck #2018 #recorded in July, 2021

This is a noir film that deals with a drug war. It is a remake of a Hong Kong film, literally, Drug War directed by action maestro, Johnny To. Same as the original, the story follows a detective who poses as a drug dealer to score a major narcotics bust.

The director tries to reach the same existential conclusion as To’s film—everybody is a corrupt middleman, justice is a lie, and there’s no such thing as closure—by notably adding more twists, reversals of fortune, and character backstories.

A vicious Chinese-Korean drug boss is played memorably by Kim Joo-hyuck in his final role before his tragic death in October, 2017. “He is the most heated character, and it is impossible to know what his boiling point is. He makes the others nervous as he is impossible to predict,” said director Lee.