A Violent Prosecutor

This review may contain spoilers!

Korean cinema really knows how to nail the crime and thriller genres. I would give A Violent Prosecutor a 7.5/10.

What this film presents is a really intriguing takedown of a corrupt politician and his criminal organisation, you care about the protagonists and their relationship as they work together to take out the film's antagonist. The really fun dialogue and characters as well as engaging storyline makes the pacing for this film fairly smooth; it slows down in places but I felt hooked throughout. The cinematography for this film is really good, what I particularly like about Korean cinematography in general is that framing is always so crisp and nice looking. The score for this film was quite unique and something that really worked to the film's favour; I loved how the sound felt like an 80s tv serial blended with modern techno to create an incredible accompaniment to this film.

Gang Don-Won, who played Han Chi-Won, was one of the funniest protagonists of this film; his ability to play a multitude of roles as this con man character really impressed me. Lee Sung-Min, who played Woo Jong-Gil, was an incredible antagonist in this film; I think the way he was quietly threatening and manpulative made his breakdown at the end of the film all the better.

However the best performance came from Hwang Jung-Min, who played Byun Jae-Wook. This is character development at it's absolute best, I'm speechless at this man's performance. He shows the youthful ignorance of his role at the start of the film, a very brash and unrestrained performance. By the end of this film we're shown a whole new character, one who's stern, calculating and above all else genuinely sorry for the person he was in his youth. I liked the journey Hwang Jung-Min took us on and I really praise his performance.

This film had a lot of plot twists as could only be expected, however most of the twists I felt like I had seen play out a thousand times before and in that regard it meant this film never had the wow factor that I hoped for. The editing in this film was slow to cut at times, I think it was simple and didn't show a very creative capacity.

Park Sung-Woong, who played Yang Min-Woo, was never really given much focus in this film which his role so desperately needed; ultimately there was potential in this performance but it never played out onscreen. Joo Jin-Mo, who played Judge Choi, was an antagonist that probably needed more focus in this film; his character barely reared his head and was crammed into this story more out of necessity rather than anything else. Shin So-Yul, who played Kim Ha-Na, was a very two dimensional role; her romance with Gang Don-Won felt very basic and forced in this film. Kim Hong-Fa, who played the Prison Warden, was yet another antagonist with a lack of screen presence in this film; a significant portion of the film was in the prison so it would have been nice to have seen more antagonists there.