BELIEVER (독전) (2018)

Genre: Crime/Drama
Director: Lee Hae-young
Cast: Ryu Jun-yeol, Park Hae-jun, Cho Jin-woong, Kim Joo-hyuck, Cha Seoung-won, Kim Sung-ryoung
RunTime: 2 hrs 3 mins
Rating: NC-16 (Drug use and violence)
Released By: mm2 Entertainment
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 5 July 2018

Synopsis: Detective Jo Won-ho (CHO Jin-woong) is determined to catch the mysterious 'Mr Lee', the infamous leader of Asia’s largest drug market. But to track down Mr Lee, Won Ho must work with Rak (RYU Jun-yeol), a drug cartel member who seeks revenge against Mr Lee. An endless dilemma between trust and suspicion begins.

Movie Review:

Though intended and billed as a remake of Johnnie To’s superb 2012 crime thriller ‘Drug War’, Lee Hae-young’s ‘Believer’ is so substantially different that it deserves to be regarded as an original film in its own right. As co-writer, Lee has retained the basic premise of To’s Mainland-set epic in shifting the story to South Korea – simply put, a dogged detective who infiltrates a narcotics syndicate with the help of a potentially untrustworthy informant. That detective in Lee’s film is Jo Won-ho (Cho Jin-wong), who in an early sequence, loses a battered teenage informant whom he sends to take down the organisation’s elusive kingpin “Mr Lee”. Won-ho gets his break when he crosses paths with Rak (Ryu Jun-yeol), a low-level gopher who narrowly survives an explosion that takes out a drug lab as well as most of the bigwigs in Mr Lee’s cartel.

Unlike Louis Koo’s character in To’s film, Rak’s motivation here isn’t selfish; having lost his adopted mother and his beloved Korean Jindo breed of a pet Leica in the blast, Rak wants to get even with Mr Lee. His shaky alliance with Won-ho is set in motion with an elaborate switcheroo that was one of the memorable highlights from its predecessor: with Rak as an intermediary, Won-ho impersonates as Mr Lee’s representative to meet a Chinese-Korean dealer Jin Ha-rim (Kim Joo-hyuk) and his mercurial girlfriend Bo-ryeong (Jin Seo-yeon) in a posh hotel in downtown Seoul, before pretending to be Ha-rim with a female colleague to deal with Mr Lee’s pernicious lieutenant Sun-chang (Park Hae-jun). Those who have seen To’s movie will no doubt know what’s up, but Lee’s version is no less tense and no less exciting, thanks to the manically over-the-top performances from the excellent supporting ensemble.

There is just another obvious nod to ‘Drug War’ – a mute brother-sister pair who run a factory on the outskirts of Seoul which processes the chemicals into high-quality narcotics, and as played by Kim Dong-young and Lee Joo-young, the young cooks with their vulgar banter in sign language is energetic and hilarious. But that is also where the similarities end; whereas To chose to reward his fans with one of his classic bullet ballets, Lee spins a much more elaborate mystery around Mr Lee’s true identity, which packs more than a couple of surprises in its final act. Not only does Won-ho have to overcome his suspicion of Rak in order to mount one last switcheroo in order to penetrate Mr Lee’s lair, he will eventually be confronted with the full extent of Rak’s disingenuity, which ultimately leaves him to decide just how far he is willing to go to ensure that justice is served.

If it isn’t yet apparent, ‘Believer’ is a lot more plot-driven than ’Drug War’, but that focus on narrative unfortunately comes at the expense of character development. Most notably, the central relationship between Won-ho and Rak could have benefited from significantly greater emphasis, especially in reflecting their mutual distrust of each other’s loyalties. That was the very emotional backbone of the earlier film but sorely lost here, which seems content to settle for Rak’s occasional reminders to Won-ho about how he needs him and/or the latter slapping the former around after losing a teammate in an explosion. Without that emotional anchor, it isn’t quite as compelling the toll the mission takes on Won-ho’s team, as well as Won-ho’s eventual persistence at tracking down Mr Lee no matter that the case is closed in the eyes of the public and his own superior.

That said, ‘Believer’ still is a fine piece of genre work. Lee’s craftsmanship for sleek action set-pieces is undoubtable, and even though he lacks To’s signature flair, the combination of anticipation and full-blown violence makes each one of them gripping to watch. With his cinematographer Kim Tae-kyung, Lee frames his scenes in dark shadows and gritty textures, giving the film a strikingly stylish visual palette. There is also a nice counterbalance with breathtaking aerial shots of rural and urban Korea, along with the icy landscape of Norway where the sequences which bookend the film were shot. For a film that runs slightly more than two hours, it is to Lee’s credit that there is never a dull moment, with either the twists in the story and/or the colourful characters keeping you hooked.

Like we said at the start, ‘Believer’ injects more than enough creative license into the basic premise and beats of ‘Drug War’ for it to be treated as an original film in its own right. This isn’t a slavish copy of the original, but one which assuredly retains the core elements of To’s film within its own story of crime, deception and duplicity. In fact, it is as Korean as any other Korean genre film, which probably explains why it has performed so resoundingly well in its own home territory. Even as it lacks some deeper thematic meaning or emotional poignancy, this is still a pacy outing of action and suspense that makes for a solid two hours of adrenaline-pumping entertainment. As doubtful as we may have been about anyone trying to remake To, you can count us a believer at the end of this intense and captivating thrill ride.

Movie Rating:

(It may lack Johnnie To's eccentric flair, but this Korean remake of 'Drug War' is still a twisty crime thriller full of adrenaline-pumping moments that will more than satisfy genre fans)

Review by Gabriel Chong