Yu Gang-in, a recently paroled gang boss reinvents himself as a Christian family man to make an open bid for a political career. He's looking good in the public point of view but is still a gangster at heart. Oh Jin-woo, a by-the-books prosecutor, returns to Seoul after 3 years in exile and it was he who put Yu behind bars. At the same time, Jang Do-yeong, a hotheaded detective who are not too found of going by the book, finds his half-brother stabbed to death by one of Yu's minions. So Jang of course goes after Yu and his people, and so does Oh but they both end up without any good result. So Oh suggest that they them up in order to bring justice onto Yu and his gang.
Running Wild is a slick new crime movie from Korea, and the Korean title translates to 'Wild Beast'. But looking visually great and being a slick film overall is just not enough. It's a somewhat standard crime drama that features a lot of action scenes, violence and some twists, but in the end comes out as just an ok flick, nothing more really.
We have seen the same thing at least a hundred times before. What I'm talking about is these kind of 'buddy-movies' were two completely different persons team up, and while it's akward at first, the more they get to know each other, the better they work together. Even if there are many different characters in the movie, it deals mostly with three of them. One is Yu, a crime boss who has just been released from prison and who has become a new-born christian, but behind the scenes, the man is still a criminal. Then we have Oh, a prosecutor who put Yu behind bars a few years back, and who's trying to do the same thing all over again. Oh strictly follows the books, rules and regulations, something that can't be said about his new partner Jang.
 
Jang is a hotheaded detective who loses his temper so many times that it's hard to keep count (not that I was counting). He doesn't say no to a fight, but instead seems to invite them. He's also the character that makes this movie fun and entertaining to watch. Without him, thing would be way too slow and dull. His half-brother, Lee Dong-jik, used to work for Yu and is released from prison the same day as Yu as well. When Jang is in a store while his newly released brother sits drunk and waiting outside, some of Yu's people stabbs him to death, and so it starts. Jang, filled with rage, goes after Yu's people and even though he beats up a lot of them several times, he himself gets beaten up a number of times as well.
Oh, who's watching Yu and the people who work for him in order to find hard evidence to be able to put Yu behind bars again, is one day disrupted by Jang who attacks some Yu's people. Oh later suggests that he and Jang should team up, and together try to nail Yu, but Yu is smart and things are not as easy as they first had thought. Sounds complicated? It's really not, and everything is quite standard and the movie is easy to follow as well. Unfortunately it's not interesting all the way.
The good things are that, except for the directing being great, that the movie looks slick and visually really good, the acting is as in most Korean movies good to very good, and the movie has a lot of action and fighting scenes. The movie actually featured a hell of a lot of violence when thinking about it, and that's a good thing because it makes things happen as it sometimes slows down and makes you lose interest. The story is ok, but it's a pretty standard crime drama, it works but you've most likely seen it before. One really good thing though is that you don't get a typical Hollywood ending, and the movie also has one bigger twist that came rather unexpected. It's an ok crime movie, and even if it was entertaining at times, I found it hard to stay interested all the way.
In the end Running Wild felt like a pretty standard Korean crime flick. It looks great and the acting is great, but it was hard to get drawn into it and be able to stay focused the whole movie throughout. It has a lot of action scenes and that sure helps, but the story just didn't feel interesting enough at times. It's far from bad but it was nothing that made you go wow either.
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ALTERNATIVE TITLE: Ya-soo
MOVIE YEAR: 2005
DIRECTOR: Kim Seong-soo
WRITING CREDITS: Han Ji-hoon
GENRE: Action, Film noir, Crime
CAST: Kwon Sang-woo, Yoo Ji-tae, Eom Ji-won
COUNTRY: South Korea
RUNTIME: 124 min
RATING: 5/10
Running Wild Website/IMDB Click here
Running Wild Trailer Click here
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