A blisteringly entertaining and enjoyable film, one of the funniest South Korean action comedies.
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Don’t be misled or fooled by South Korean director Lee Byeong-heon’s latest comedy ‘Extreme Job’. The film’s title is bland and generic; the film is anything but.
Ryu Seung-ryong (‘Psychokinesis’, ‘Kingdom’) plays police captain Go, a hardworking but poorly performing detective who heads a narcotics team comprising no-nonsense detective Jang (Lee Hanee), detective Young-ho (Lee Dong-hwi), detective Ma (Jin Seon-kyu), and newly-joined rookie detective Jae-hoon (Gong Myung).
Failing one mission after another with no results to show, the team is testing the patience of their chief who seeks to disband them. The fact that they are edging closer to catching two powerful drug lords, Lee Mu-bae (Shin Ha-kyun) and Ted Chang (Oh Jung-se) means nothing for their chief who just think that all they are doing are futile stakeouts.
Taking things into their own hands, the team decides to buy over a fried chicken restaurant situated opposite one of the drug lord’s hideout. With a restaurant in their hands, the team finds out that they actually have to operate it. And soon, they find themselves too busy with selling their increasingly popular fried chicken to do actual detective work.
South Korea is known to produce a lot of serious heavy hard-hitting crime movies. So it’s refreshing to watch the genre take an all-around lighter, comedic approach. The opening scene in which the team has to infiltrate a building to capture a drug mule without causing property damage is hilarious to a tee. The physical comic antics and set pieces are well staged and well integrated into the plot of the film. In fact, the better ones recall the humour and style of the master action comedian Jackie Chan.
While not perfect (the film’s momentum sags in the middle), ‘Extreme Job’ is a blisteringly entertaining and enjoyable film, one of the funniest South Korean action comedies.
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