The Merciless

THE MERCILESS is another dark, gritty, and incredibly brutal slice of crime drama from South Korea. I'm surprised that nobody else has reviewed it yet because it's very well made and tells a great little story, similar to the quality of something like ASURA: CITY OF MADNESS. The main character is a young thug and gangster who is imprisoned with some old-timers and forced to fight to make his name known, but he's hiding a dark secret: he's actually an undercover cop. With a two-hour running time this weaves through a complex storyline with ease and directorial slickness, bolstered by a string of reliably astonishing action sequences inspired by the likes of OLD BOY. The violence is incredibly brutal and nihilistic and the story is dark and downbeat as a whole, but that's realism for you. As with most Korean films I've watched, the acgting and technical qualities are exemplary.