The City Of Violence review

Reviews

Jun 8th 2007 By Total Film

Bruce Lee may have entered the dragon and fought the big boss, but he never had to tussle with BMX bikers, body-popping street dancers or hockey stick-wielding schoolgirls. Korea’s (latest) premier martial arts choreographer and actor Jung Doo-hong faces these bad guys and more in this bone-crunching thriller about a Seoul cop returning home to investigate the murder of a childhood buddy. Cannily ditching the usual Korean melodramatics – bar a few childhood flashbacks – writer-director Ryoo Seung-wan (Crying Fist, Arahan) hones this revenge tale into a trim 90 minutes of gangster martial arts chic culminating in an insane restaurant beat- ’em-up. It’s not polished or ambitious enough to be another Old Boy but there’s no doubt that it’s ready to rumble: think Get Carter meets The Warriors with bone-crunching tae kwon do and you’re nearly there. Ryoo says it’s his last action flick. We urge him to reconsider.