New World, starring CHOI Min-Sik (OLDBOY), LEE Jung-Jae (THE THIEVES) and HWANG Jun-min, is an expertly-crafted, densely layered, and brutally violent Korean film.
The director’s use of characters, power, and conflict to build and destroy story lines is compellingly engaging. The unveiling of the truth between good cop and bad cop inter-weaved with a world of criminal desires throws the viewers into a cool gangster style of twist and turns. The progression of the character build up and scene-to-scene storytelling is subtle with an almost Scorsese style from The Departed while the high-impact gangster fighting scenes showcases the Oldboy style by Chan-wook Park. The New World is a complete movie with a somewhat perplexing ending, yet simply summarized.
The head of the Goldmoon crime syndicate is dead, leaving his top two lieutenants. Seizing the opportunity, the police launch an operation called “New World,” with the perfect weapon. The boss’ right hand man, Ja-sung (LEE Jung-jae, THE THIEVES), has been a deep-cover operative for 8 years, closely watched by handler Police chief Kang (CHOI Min-sik, OLDBOY). With a baby on the way, and living in mortal fear of being exposed as a mole, Ja-sung is torn between his duty and honor as a cop, and the fiercely loyal gang members who will follow him to hell and back.
Using inside information from Ja-sung to damage the relationship between the two feuding contenders, suspicions grow that a traitor lives in their ranks. Ruthless Jung (HWANG Jun-min, BLADES OF BLOOD) escalates the game by hiring hackers to search the police database. As Operation New World closes in, and with the stakes climbing higher and a gangland bloodbath guaranteed among those that remain, Ja-sung makes a final, shocking decision no one could have predicted.
Release Date: March 22, 2013 at AMC Empire (info: http://www.asianinny.com/?p=27326)
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