Detective Tae-su from Seoul returns to his homwtown to attend a funeral for a friend of his that has recently passed away. At the funeral he meets up with his old friends with one of them being a guy named Seok-hwan who along with Tae-su suspects that there is something that was not right about their friend, Wang-jae's death. So together they start to investigate the real cause behind Wang-jae's death and discover that one of their old friends named Pil-ho, who works in organized crime, might somehow have been involved.
The City of Violence is a very stylish new Korean kind of action movie dealing with two old friends who believes that there's something fishy behind their newly departed friends death. The title of the movie pretty much sums things up and if you like watching violence and fights on screen, then this movie is a definite must see. But obviously it has a lot more to it than just violence, even though it has more than plenty of that to offer. It also deals with old friends coming together after a long time away from each other, including flashbacks to when they were young, something that made the story telling work really well. The action elements were great in the movie, but it also had a drama part that felt genuine and did a lot for the movie as well.
Tae-su is a a detective, working in Seoul and fighting organized crime. He gets word that his old friend Wang-jae has recently passed and returns to his old hometown to attend the funeral. Once there he meet his old gang and they start to reminisce the good old days. Tae-su though believes that there was something that was not right with the way Wang-jae died, and together with his childhood friend Seok-hwan, they start to dig for the truth to what caused Wang-jae's death. Their digging for the truth makes the city turn into a chaotic battlefield and they discover that there's a lot more to Wang-jae's death once they start to scratch the surface.
 
The City of Violence had a slight Taratino feel to it, as well as it had a feel of some movies from the early 70's, even though it looks, and is, brand new. It also made me think of a few Hong Kong action flicks, not that it had borrowed stuff or ripped off things for that matter, but it just had that kind of feel to it. But most important is that even though it might have the same feel as some other genre films, it completely managed to stay on its own and was truly an entertaining piece of film to watch.
The violence itself looks realistic enough, but never so it became too much for one to sit through. It takes a break from breaking faces every now and then and delivers some fine pieces of dramatic cinema that even has some humour in it at times. So it's not just all about people getting beaten up, even though there's a lot of that going on. Basically, it's a very violent film but that has some good balance which makes things not seem as harsh as they first appears to be. Acting-wise it's all good with Tae-su and Seok-hwan looking really sharp and belivable as a team.
The City of Violence is an adrenaline kick and a real roller coaster ride to watch, filled with explosive action scenes. It's truly entertaining, violent as hell, but still offers some good drama with the story telling and pacing being really good. It's a slick movie that has a great feel to it with some cool characters and a story that is interesting as well as it's intense. Sounds good? It is, so go for it.
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ALTERNATIVE TITLE: Jjak-pae
MOVIE YEAR: 2006
DIRECTOR: Ryoo Seung-wan
WRITING CREDITS: Kim Jeong-min, Ryoo Seung-wan
GENRE: Crime, Drama, Action, Revenge
CAST: Ryoo Seung-wan, Jeong Doo-hong, Lee Beom-soo
COUNTRY: South Korea
RUNTIME: 92 min
RATING: 8/10
City of Violence, The Website/IMDB Click here
City of Violence, The Trailer Click here
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