Running Wild (2006)

Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Warning spoiler. Acting in this is absolutely superb. I was in thralled right up to the ending. I don't know what type of bullets the Korean place used to bring a suspect down however the ending was so abrupt from a high intensity of action to a surprise appearance of the hero who we presumed dead, grave stone and all some miraculous recovery from an onslaught of high-powered rifles. It just didn't make any sense.

What? The Korean viewers are satisfied with such a cheep feeble imitation? Such a pity! It has a tremendous amount of pathos, authors are trying to squeeze a tears, but it doesn't work. Why? Look, there is a marvellous Korean movie in the genre: Public Enemy (Gonggongui jeog (original title), 2002). It was so impressive because it has a strong charge of dark humour in it. It's some kind of comedy from behind of which appeared the tragedy. It creates a sound contrast and effect, it makes the fictional characters believable. And why Running Wild (2006) doesn't work? Because it is uncreative set of clichés, poorly linked, unnecessary and affected dialogs, flat non-realistic characters (even if the actors are good and attractive), stupid behavior and fighting tactics (the main hero have failed almost every fight, but he, to everybody's surprise, is still alive and still arrogant — may be he's just incredibly stupid? assault team stuffs single target with bullets and keep shooting even when target already turns in a mess — may be they are lately not so busy and feel bored?)… And all this are taken bloody seriously. O, man! But in hands of Master it could be not a feeble imitation, but a really movable story.

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. What I liked in 'Ya-soo', is that is is above all a film driven by FEELINGS: instead of opting for a cerebral approach like, for instance, Chan-Wook Park in his three films about vengeance, or a more philosophical one, like Ji-woon Kim in 'A Bittersweet Life', the director opts for an 'stripped-bare-emotions' approach, which can be qualified as melodramatic, and it is true that drama overwhelms the film, but it worked for me, and I think it was a wise choice from the director to try to explore the issues taken on in 'Ya-soo', that is to say, mainly deficiencies of the judicial system and political corruption this way, instead of copying the work of other film makers. What we have here is the direct, raw impact of an extremely unfair situation and the direct, raw response of the two main characters to the aforementioned situation, and in this context, the amount of action and violence of 'Ya-soo' is perfectly understandable. However, I think that the director is intelligent enough to inter cut this very fast-paced ride with moments when we get to know the main characters feelings and motivations, and to some extent, to SHARE them. In this respect, both KSW and JTY acted very well and managed to convey their emotions to the viewer. As for me, I was finally deeply moved by the film, and I think that this was also the primary intention of 'Ya-soo', this is a film intended to make the viewer FEEL. 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.

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")