Kick'em In The Ghoulies

Starring : Choi Min-sik,Hwang Jung-min,Lee Jung-Jae

Screenplay and Directed By : Park Hoon-Jung

2013

New World

This is our final review in our Park Hoon-Jung series which where featured at the London Korean Cultural Centre.

For the final film we had the bonus of director and writer Park Hoon-Jung in attendance to introduce the film and for a Q&A after the film.

For his latest film ''New World'' he continues his trademark of the triangle surrounding three individuals who are affected by each others actions ,either directly or indirectly.

Being a film which focuses on the life of the Korean under world, but unlike many Korean gangster films , New World concentrates on the multi-million dollar organisations that are fronted by business men whose roots may lay in the seedy world of the gangs and criminal organisations but rarely get there own hands dirty.

In fact Park Hoon-Jung loosely based the film on actual events that took place in Korea. But for anyone viewing there be seeing the directors homage to the many American , Hong Kong and Japanese gangster films that have set the benchmark.

If you have ever got into the Japanese gangster films from the fifties and sixties or classic American films like Good fellas or Hong Kong's Infernal Affairs trilogy with Andy Lau your see where the director got his motivation from.

For me the film shares much in common with the latter film I mentioned , as it focuses on the placement of under cover officers within large criminal organisations.

The film starts with the mysterious death of the head of one GoldenMoon Industries a front for one of Korea's biggest crime organisations.

This creates a power struggle as upcoming hierarchy in the company compete to be voted the new head by the board .

Lee Joong-Gu ( Park Sung-Woong) is one of those competing for the top spot along with his rival Jung Chung ( Hwnag Jung-Min) who is of Chinese decent and looked down upon by many , Jung Chung is brash and sometimes loud which goes against the grain of some within the organisation .

But Jung is aided by his friend and second in command Lee Ja -Sung ( Lee Jung-Jae) who tries to keep Jung from acting rashly and often looks after the business when Jung is away on other business.

Now I said that the film goes along with the emphasis on the story taking the form of a triangle .it does but it's up to you to find out what the triangle is as there is another person in the picture , our fourth person is Cheif Kang ( Choi Min-Sik) of the Police department.

Kang is the handler for a undercover within Goldmoon's society who has been hidden for more then eight years.

Within the inn fighting of Goldmoon where in it's present climate no one trusts anybody and everyone suspects everyone else of the death of it's leader.

Who killed the organisations leader ? Well it's a mystery waiting to be revealed .

Now amongst all the board room meetings and innuendos where one party undermines the other , New World also delivers in the action department to a degree to, to find out who is responsible for the leaders death each faction sends out it's men to do the dirty works ,often resulting in ugly clashes between parties.

Add to this the input of Chief Kang and the Police department which is set to unravel the In fighting within Goldmoon and bring the organisation down.

Running at nearly two and half hours New World keeps you thinking and dishes out some surprises to.

New World is a complex boardroom drama which is inter-spaced with some graphically violent scenes which come together well to form a well rounded story which keeps you watching.

After the film we had the pleasure of Park Hoon-Jung being interviewed and some questions from the audience ..

Park also gave away the news of his work on the sequel to the film , whether it will be the final piece of the story we don't know ,it could go to a trilogy like the Godfather or Infernal Affairs. . Also we don't know who of the main stars will return for the next film , but when you view the film you may or may not be able to work that out.

New World was fitting closing film to the Park Hoon-Jung series and we look forward to the next season of films at the centre.

Score out of Ten = 8

Review Date : April 4th 2014

Reviewed By : Sertes Nake