Ya-soo (2006)

User Rating:

6.3/10   

Director:

Sung-su Kim

Release Date:

13 January 2006 (South Korea)

Genre:

Action | Crime | Thriller

Tagline:

Two men who will remain in your hearts.

Plot Keywords:

Stabbed To Death | Cremation | Threat | Mutilation | Police Raid

Cast

Sang-woo Kwone	...	Jang Do-young
Ji-tae Yu	...	Oh Jin-woo
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Kil-Kang Ahn	...	Yang Ki-taek
Seok-hyeon Jo	...	Instructor
Yun-seok Kim	...	Joo Hyun-tae
Jung-Hee Moon
Byung-ho Son	...	Yu Kang-jin
Ji-won Uhm	...	Kang Joo-hee
Dong-geun Yun

Also Known As:

Running Wild (International: English title)

Runtime:

124 min | 144 min (director's cut)

Country:

South Korea

Language:

Korean

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

South Korea:18 | Singapore:M18 | Singapore:NC-16 (edited version) | Malaysia:(Banned) | Germany:18 | Japan:R-15

Filming Locations:

South Korea

Company:

Popcorn Films

Violent, uncompromising, but fundamentally honest and eventually moving

This is definitely one of the best cop dramas I've seen in a long time, and a film that has a lot more going for it than a mere justification of violence that many people seem to see in it. Let's first start with the main character: another reviewer said he is macho (I don't know if he talked about the film in general or the main character Jang Do-Young played by Sang-woo Kwone): I tend to agree, but I would say that he is macho in a good way: neither is he misogynous/homophobic nor is he a Charles Bronson-vigilante type, dispensing justice at random. No, our hero is a man with balls of steel who won't hesitate to take on an entire criminal organization on his own. Well, actually he won't be alone, since, and no spoiler here, since this is the basic plot outline, he will be helped in this task by another cop of completely opposite temper, played by Ji-tae Yu. This brings me to the question of the acting, which is here, in my opinion, excellent. Ji-tae Yu remains very true to himself, playing the cool-headed cop to perfection. Anyway, even when he is supposed to play troubled characters, like, for instance, a troubled ex-cop in 'Geoul sokeuro'('Into the Mirror' is the English title)he cannot help but seem cool-headed. The big surprise here comes from Sang-woo Kwone. He definitely had the opportunity to show he could act before, take for instance 'Once Up on a Time in High School'(2004), where, at 28 (he was born in 1976) he very convincingly portrayed a 'romantic-teenager-finally-gone-wild', a character who was supposed to be around 18-20 years old in this film. In 'Ya-soo' he definitely conveys with great conviction the rage and the raw emotions stripped bare of his character. Now, I would like to discuss some comparisons that many people seem to make between 'Ya-soo' and 'A Bittersweet Life'. I think that these two films, apart from being both excellent, do have very little in common. Apart from violence, which is present in both films, but not gratuitous, since it is inherent to both stories, there is one fundamental difference: the issue of revenge/vengeance: in 'A Bittersweet Life', revenge is a side-effect, or 'by-product' resulting from the main character's actions, whereas in 'Ya-soo', it is the very driving force motivating the character's actions. I won't tell the reason for this revenge, since this could be considered to be a spoiler, but this leads me to another conclusion, that is to say that 'Ya-soo' in this respect, could be, but only to a certain extent, compared to Chan-wook Park's revenge trilogy. The big difference is that in Chan-wook Park's films, the revenge wanted by the characters is always on an individual level, all the three films dealing with individual characters wanting retribution for individual injustice they suffered from. In 'Ya-soo', on the contrary, although there are some individual motivations for revenge, the elements that are mainly targeted through the main characters' stories are social injustice and political corruption. 'Ya-soo' is fundamentally the story of a sort of a desperate and tragic battle against a profoundly unfair social environment and a deficient justice system. But what a ride!!! As the tag lines suggested it on the title page for this film on this website, this film will definitely remain in my heart.