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Ya-soo (2006) More at IMDbPro »

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3 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
Wild and Gritty, 13 August 2007
9/10
Author: plokkr123 from anchorage, ak

This film is about corruption and wild negative life of people against the rules. it just a like CSI, Miami VICE...or maybe SWAT! hehehe... Just full of action reloaded. GOOD FILM! In this film, K.S.W is become an irretated and rude inspector who's believe he can solved all the problem by his own rules,and with his own ways. Until one day he have a new incomer to the department of police to be his partner. The whole big problem has begin to come.

The plot become more complex, when K.S.W have face his family problem, and work cause by the bad guys.

This film has a good cinematography and full with action pack. Pheww!!!...i'm really like the part when K.W.S start to kick those bad guys and for sure...at the last scene...hmm...see it for yourself to feel it.

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3 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
Niiiiiiiiice!!! Macho! Gangsta! Cold Blooded! Tragic Heroism...., 6 September 2006
10/10
Author: rivermanfire from United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Good stuff baby! Homicide Detective JANG and Chief Inspector OH are hot on the trail of the ever elusive and seemingly untouchable Gangster boss YU.

Now Jang is like a thug himself beating out confessions and going on vigilante rampages but the man is on a mission of revenge. Inspector OH , on the other hand is your clean cut, by the book career cop trying to make the world a better place by fighting organized crime. Extenuating circumstances bring the two together because they are after the same people essentially in Boss YU and his crime family.

Boss YU is not one to be trifled with as he is major connected in legitimate and illegitimate ways to the top of the food chain in the gangster and political scene. He is like the Zen Master Gangster who is adept at the Art of War. He is always pulling something out to escape the clutches of his foes and those who are against him or stand in his way always face death or double cross.

The tension is high and the pace never relents. Each scene plays out like a chess game that is opening up as the story unfolds revealing bits and pieces of a murderous game. The acting is superb if you like intensity and the quality of production is impressive to say the least. The characters are definitely attention getting. The tension between the three main players just burns with each pursuing a destiny that consumes them.

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Violent, uncompromising, but fundamentally honest and eventually moving, 6 August 2009
9/10
Author: yduric from Switzerland

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.

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2 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :-
Some missed opportunities, 5 May 2007
6/10
Author: kosmasp

I like Korean action cinema. They don't have to hide behind US Blockbusters, quite the contrary, there are movies that excel some of the Hollywood fare. But this movie is not quite up to that task, which is a shame.

The outline overall is quite good, the main actors are real enough (although their motives and intentions might be unclear and stay that way for some western audience members). The action set pieces are good, but a bit too shaky for my taste. A previous reviewer compared this movie to the wonderful "A bittersweet Life". I'd steer away from that comparison. A bittersweet Life is much more philosophical than this movie is, but more about that movie under it's own IMDb page (I highly recommend you to watch "A bittersweet Life")

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6 out of 24 people found the following comment useful :-
Disappointing Korean cop drama, 6 May 2006
4/10
Author: kevbee from Birmingham, England

'Running Wild' stars Kwon Sang Woo (Love So Divine) as chain-smoking jaded homicide detective Jang, who has lost faith in the judicial system and now pursues a maverick line of police inquiry. He's after a cruel crime lord called Yu, but thus far he's been unable to pin the guy down. Also after Yu is an elite prosecutor, Oh, played by Yoo Ji Tae (Old Boy). In contrast to Jang, this character is obsessive that rules and procedures must be obeyed. I think you can guess the next bit! Jang and Oh's paths cross and this mismatched pair form an uneasy alliance to bring the bad guy down. But to do this, they have to fight fire with fire and break the rules.

This sounds quite good on paper but sadly it doesn't work on screen. Maybe it was too ambitious as a directorial debut from Kim Sung Soo and most certainly it was miscast. Kwon Sang Woo is best known for light romantic comedies and a host of tear-jerking TV dramas in which he excels. I can't blame the actor if he wants to break away from that mould, but somehow he's just too handsome. So having unkempt hair, sporting an incongruous moustache and shouting a lot doesn't convince me that he's been through hell and high water in a police department.

There are a lot of action scenes, most of which sadly fail to impress. Apparently, director Kim Sung Soo is a protégé of Park Chan Wook. He still has a lot to learn. If you want to see a great Korean film about a maverick cop, then check out 'Public Enemy'.

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