The breakout performance of “Train to Busan” was a guy named Ma-Seong Doek – virtually unknown before, his combination of beefy musculature, bearish charm and sensitive dad soul saw audiences take him to their heart. This film is basically a chance to appreciate him all over again – this time, as the somewhat more dapperly-dressed Gangster of the title, whose skirmishes with The Cop of the title are interrupted when, driving home one night, he’s stopped and then attacked by a serial killer. Surviving, he teams up with The Cop to pursue the Devil who struck him down, but their differing methods see a whole lotta danger.
This is, to be honest, not the most innovative Korean movie ever made – the characters are pretty basic, and the fights, while violent, aren’t at the cutting edge of modern action. And there’s some distinctively Korean cultural things going on – the Cop’s moralising sits very oddly when he’s frequently just as if not more violent than the Gangster, and Ma-Seong Doek’s charisma does slightly tilt the balance between them – the film may have been better served if both leads were equally interesting. Still, this is pretty entertaining in a “familiar yet definitely from somewhere other than here” kind of way, and it’s nice that it also finds plot-related reasons for Doek to take his shirt off occasionally.
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