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Clarence Tsui

4/5 stars
In an age in which filmmakers tend to follow box-office blockbusters with sequels that provide ever diminishing returns, South Korean filmmaker Ryoo Seung-wan has bucked the trend by making a brainier and brawnier follow-up to his 2015 hit Veteran.
Upping the stakes from the first instalment in nearly every department, I, the Executioner is a crowd-pleasing juggernaut that warns against the perils of populism, takes violence to task – and takes viewers on a white-knuckle roller coaster ride.
With stunning set pieces, a well structured story, a relatable social issue at its centre and a couple of visual gags that pay tribute to Buster Keaton, I, the Executioner makes The Roundup franchise starring Ma Dong-seok looks like child’s play.


Ryoo’s film, which premiered in the Midnight Screenings section at the Cannes Film Festival, begins with a remarkably choreographed sequence featuring bone-crunching fist fights, groin kicks and police officers debating their children’s tuition fees while they pursue crime suspects.
Leading the charge through the mayhem is Do-cheol (Hwang Jung-min), who was last seen battling an amoral multimillionaire in Veteran. This time, the rough-edged detective’s nemesis is Haechi, a self-styled vigilante targeting people who are believed to have got off lightly for their bad deeds.
Do-cheol and his team are soon caught in the public cross hairs when they are ordered to protect a paroled thug from Haechi.
A hard-boiled cop who has seen his share of acquitted felons, Do-cheol somehow finds himself siding slightly with Haechi. His values are muddied further when his son is punished for lashing out at the bullies at school.

A chance encounter leads to Do-cheol’s recruitment of Sun-woo (Jung Hae-in), whose meek behaviour and angelic appearance belie the moves he readily unleashes on suspects – seen in a breathtaking melee down a long flight of granite stairs that is packed with somersaults.
With Ryoo dropping hints about a killer nearly from the get-go, Haechi’s real identity is hardly a surprise. More surprising are the admittedly adrenaline-fuelled and action-heavy film’s relatively nuanced views about the rogue justice meted out in response to moral panic online.
Do-cheol’s early rumblings of approval for vigilantism are soon tempered by his distaste at the sight of lynch mobs screaming for the reinstatement of capital punishment. “Is there something like a right murder or a wrong murder?” he barks.

In a performance that conveys Do-cheol’s complexity – he is a fighting machine when confronting culprits, yet acts like a rabbit caught in the headlights when faced with his superiors, his wife and his detractors – Hwang provides I, the Executioner with a beating heart, something that elevates the film beyond its brasher and more vacuous counterparts.
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Box office blockbusters too often get lame follow-ups. That’s not the case with Ryoo Seung-wan’s sequel to Veteran. It’s more action-packed and has more to say
Hwang Jung-min plays hard-boiled detective Do-cheol, whose team, including Jung Hae-in as Sun Woo, is tasked with protecting a paroled thug from a vigilante


Rough-edged detective Do-cheol (Hwang Jung-min) returns in I, The Executioner, in which he and his team, including Jung Hae-in’s new recruit, must protect a paroled thug from a vigilante justice warrior.


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