If you’re as big of a fan of Oldboy’s Choi Min-sik as I am then, like me, you probably get really excited when you hear that another one of his movies has made it to the states. Though Nameless Gangster (aka KL Gangster), his live-action follow-up to I Saw the Devil, was never picked up for a theatrical release here, his latest endeavor, titled New World, did and its directed by his I Saw the Devil screenwriter, Park Hoon-jung.
When the head of the Goldmoon crime syndicate is killed in an accident, his top two lieutenants, Jung (Jeong-min Hwang) and Joong-gu (Seong-Woong Park), are the main candidates for the “throne.” Seeing this as an opportunity, the police launch an operation titled “New World” in which they utilize information from one of the lieutenants’ right hand man, Ja-sung (Lee Jung-jae), to disrupt the relationship between the two frontrunners. As it happens, Ja-sung is a cop in deep-cover and has been for eight years with his handler being Police Chief Kang (Choi Min-sik) to make sure that he stays on task, remaining faithful to the force as opposed to his gangster brothers who would follow him to the grave. With a baby on the way, his boss Jung becoming increasingly paranoid about the possibility of a mole in his clan, and torn between his alliances, Ja-sung will have to decide where his loyalties lie and how he wants to play it out if he wants to survive operation “New World.”
New World is a pretty decent gangster thriller. Actually, it starts out more like a crime drama since nothing spectacular happens but eventually evolves into the exciting thriller that you expected it would be. The film s
tarts off pretty slow and the first 45-60 minutes is spent developing the characters, establishing the premise and explaining everything you need to know about the organization and its players. Though definitely confusing at times because of all the similar names being thrown around, the first chunk of the film either moves too slow or is simply uninteresting, it was hard for me to tell. I felt that Park Hoon-jung took too much time trying to set everything up, he probably could have shaved off ten minutes and the result would have been the same.
Ja-sung is the focal point of the film and while he eventually becomes a cool character that you want to root for, the electrifying actors are the ones that surround him. The two competing lieutenants trust no one and become quite menacing, making the audience eagerly await their return when they disappear simply because you never know what they’ll do next. The same can be said for Choi Min-sik’s character who, rather than trying to be sympathetic to Ja-sung, is actually a frank asshole who just wants to take down the crime syndicate that has become his life’s mission. He’s a character that you don’t like but that you respect (to a certain extent) a refreshing thing in a film like this.
Though it starts slow, New World picks up the pace once the first body that matters actually hits the ground. When that happens, the story gets much more interesting as plot twists emerge, stakes begin to heighten, people start to get crazy and eventually shit just hits the fan in ways you didn’t think possible. It’s the second half of the film that makes New World memorable and the only reason I would recommend seeing it outside of it starring the fantastic Choi Min-sik.
Rating: Starts slow but once one person’s cover is blown it takes off hard and doesn’t stop (6.5/10)
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