Director Hae-sung Song
Starring Jin-mo Ju, Seung-heon Song, Kang-woo Kim
Rated
Score 3.5/6

Kim Hyuk is a detective in the South Korean National Police Agency, having escaped from North Korea as a teenager. Unbeknownst to his superiors, he also works as an illegal arms smuggler with his best friend and partner in crime, Lee Young-choon, who also defected from the North. Hyuk has a younger brother, Chul whom he was forced to leave behind (along with their mother) during his escape. Guilt-ridden over leaving his brother behind, Hyuk has spent the past few years searching for his brother.

For those of you who don’t know remake of the 1986 Hong Kong film A Better Tomorrow. The ’86 launched Chow Yun Fat to international stardom and was written and directed by John Woo, who acted as Executive Producer for the 2010 remake. Also it should be noted that A Better Tomorrow was remade in ’94 by Sanjay Gupta with Aatish and in 2018 by Ding Sheng.

I only really decided to watch the 2010 remake because at the moment I have been unable to get a hold of a copy of Woo’s 1986 original. I think that this had a slower burn then I was expecting (I’m not sure if this is going to be a movie that sticks with me) and perhaps I might have to revisit part of this if I ever get hold of the original version. I loved the scene in the concentration camp when Kim Hyuk is reunited with his brother Chul maybe I was overly cynical at the time but the end of the brother’s story arch at the time was not as much of a gut punch as it should have been. I also would have liked to have seen a few moments of levity.