Another ‘Round’
Everyone’s favourite slap happy, teddy bear cop returns for more fisticuffs.
The RoundUP: No Way Out
Director: Lee Sang-yong • Writer: Kim Min-sung
Starring: Ma Dong-seok, Lee Jun-hyuk, Aoki Munetaka, Lee Beom-soo, Kim Min-jae, Jeon Seok-ho, Bae Noo-ri, Jun Kunimura
South Korea • 1hr 45mins
Opens Hong Kong June 1 • IIB
Grade: B-
Here’s the thing about Ma Dong-seok (or Don Lee) as it pertains to his place in the Korean Cinema Continuum. The guy is a massive, imposing figure with ham-sized biceps and melon-sized fists who, when he kicks someone’s ass, looks like he’s doing legit damage. Dwayne Johnson talks about “candy asses” and all that but arm wrestler and MMA trainer Ma looks like he can walk the walk. In a throwdown between him and Johnson my money’s on Ma. However, his hangdog eyes and cheeky (literally) grin give him the appearance of a loveable lunk, and his onscreen cop persona is quite contrary to the Korean cinema archetype. He doesn’t smack his partners around, or swear at them, or tell them they suck at their jobs. It’s almost as if Ma were deconstructing the very concept of Korean masculinity in every one of his films. Sure, he often plays the same character. You going to tell him to stop?
Which is why The Roundup: No Way Out | 범죄도시3 is a double-edged sword. The third of a planned octet (!), including spin-offs (the fourth instalment is in post), what is now a franchise pivoted hard from dead serious (and ultra violent) crime drama in 2017’s The Outlaws into lighter, more comedic action comedy territory with last year’s The Roundup. The resulting US$100 million gross ensured the comedy would stay front and centre. Part three is mostly just Ma throwing his huge mitts around and sending vaguely threatening bad guys clear across rooms. Don’t get me wrong. It’s hugely entertaining. It’s just not the revelation its predecessors were.
Bam. Thwap. Oof.
It’s 2015, a little while after the Metropolitan Investigation Team returns from Vietnam after busting up a kidnapping and ransom conspiracy, and Ma Seok-do (Ma) is back to smacking dudes around for being general dickheads. The crew takes a call that puts them on the path of a synthetic designer drug circulating in Seoul, Hiper, and before you can say “Bam” they’re neck deep in a trafficking scrum with dirty cop Joo Seong-cheol (Along with the Gods’ Lee Jun-hyuk), some actual cop killers, mainland Chinese gangsters and, in a new addition to the world, traditional Korean nemeses: the Japanese! Somewhere in the messy, messy plot is an explanation (maybe) of how Joo is paving the way for a Yakuza Hiper lab in Seoul but then double crosses them for either 20 kilos of product or millions in cash, and winds up with Yakuza boss Ichijo (Japanese stalwart Jun Kunimura, The Wailing) siccing his fixer, Riki (Aoki Munetaka, Martin Scorsese’s Silence, here serving adult Wesley Crusher energy), on him. Ma punches a lot of people en route to busting open another big case.
Returning director Lee Sang-yong really, really doesn’t mess with the formula, and so shoots himself in the foot – or ensures continued success for parts four through eight, depending on your perspective. Where The Outlaws had a gritty, nihilistic bite as only Koreans can bite, The Roundup surprised in its course correction. Both worked because funny or not, they had two things in their favour: Ma, and a truly nasty villain that was a legitimate threat. If you can parse the plot machinations that writer Kim Min-sung muddles in service of tension, Joo’s poncy-haired, shiny-suited heavy isn’t all that. He’s a garden variety bad guy that wants to get rich. Kunimura did a more nuanced, more menacing Yakuza boss in Outrage, and Munetaka turns in the kind of “You are a worthy adversary [name here], bravo,” performance we’ve seen in these movies a million times.
Which is not to say The Roundup: No Way Out is without its charms, chief among them Ma. He’s still a treat to watch (he was hands down the best part of Eternals), and the sound effect Lee and Co. have given his big punch is hilarious, as is the frequent attitude adjustment various henchman adopt when faced with answering Ma’s questions or getting socked again. A running gag that has Ma’s partner Kim Man-jae (Kim Min-jae) and the crew always showing up to a fight just a couple of seconds too late could go splat, but the game cast makes it work. And cleaving closely to the pattern, Ko Kyu-pil plays Cho, another petty grifter roped into helping the MIT on its case, this edition’s Jang I-soo, the one-time Chinatown gang leader turned smuggler played by Park Ji-hwan. Like any good franchise, Park has a cameo that teases The Roundup: Punishment. This is action trash of the highest order, free of formal or narrative innovation but happy to stay in its lane. And to take over the punching space last occupied by the turkey that was Black Adam. Watch your back, Johnson. Seriously. Watch it. — DEK